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STANFORD, Calif.- Freshman guard Chasson Randle has developed into a solid leader for Stanford over a short of period. Then again, he has a pretty good mentor in Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins, one of the top point guards in the nation while at Duke.
Randle scored 18 points and made four 3-pointers to help Stanford beat Colorado 84-64 on Saturday.
"He's a very mature young player for a freshman," Dawkins said. "He's poised. He did not commit a turnover, which means he made good decisions with the basketball and made our offense more efficient."
Randle has reached double figures in each of his last three games, which includes a season-best 24 in last week's four-overtime win at Oregon State.
"I feel like we executed well," Randle said. "This was definitely one of our best performances on both ends of the court. For us it's all about getting better."
Josh Huestis matched his career high with 13 points for the Cardinal (15-3, 5-1 Pac-12), which improved to 11-1 at home with its third straight victory. Aaron Bright added 14 points and Josh Owens chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds.
"We feel like we are a good matchup for anybody," Huestis said. "We just played harder. Thursday was not a good defensive effort."
Andre Roberson scored 15 points to lead the Buffaloes (11-6, 3-2 Pac-12), who lost their second straight following a six-game winning streak. Austin Dufault added 14 points, Carlon Brown 13 and Spencer Dinwiddie 10.
"Our defense wasn't good enough to keep us in the game," Colorado head coach Tad Boyle said. "We've got to be tougher. Every time we step into the weight room, we've got to remember this game. We got manhandled out there."
Stanford opened a 27-point lead with just over seven minutes remaining.
The Cardinal held a 21-14 advantage in points off turnovers.
Anthony Brown, who finished with eight points, hit consecutive 3-pointers midway through the second half to highlight a 24-3 run for the Cardinal that resulted in a 74-47 edge. Boyle drew a technical foul during the run, in which the Buffaloes were 1-8 from the floor with four turnovers.
"Momentum is a big part of college basketball," Boyle said. "We tried to call a couple timeouts to try and stem the tide, but they made big shots when they had to."
Randle's layup with 2:16 left in the first half gave Stanford a 37-28 lead en route to a 39-33 halftime advantage. There were six lead changes in the first 20 minutes.
"Offensively he did a good job of keeping us in the game," Dawkins said. "Our ball movement was as good as it's been all year."
Stanford's Andy Brown, who missed his last three years of basketball with knee injuries, sank one of two free throws for his first college point. He played three minutes in his second appearance of the season.
Members of the Stanford football team took to the court during the intermission for a coaches vs. players contest. Among the participants were linebacker A.J. Tarpley and graduate assistant coach Tavita Pritchard, who preceded Andrew Luck at quarterback and briefly played basketball for Stanford. No score was kept.
- Rick Eymer, Associated Press
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STANFORD QUOTES
Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins
Opening Statement...
"We beat a good team tonight. I thought our kids played terrific, they played as well as they have all year on both ends of the floor. I'm just really proud of their effort."
On the performance of Chasson Randle...
"He's a very mature young player. You don't see that in many freshmen. He's poised, and I was really proud of his performance from start to finish tonight. I thought he had a big defensive assignment but he embraced it. I thought offensively he did a great job for us, especially in the first half when the game was teetering one way or another I thought he did an awesome job of keeping us in the game and keeping us involved."
On the performance of Josh Huestis...
"He changes shots, he blocks shots, he rebounds the ball extremely well and he just needs to keep refining those qualities. But I tell you what, there's no kid that's working any harder at improving than Josh Huestis. He wants to be a terrific player and he's willing to pay the price by working hard to get that accomplished."
On scoring 84 points against Colorado's defense...
"They do play very good defense. I thought our ball movement was probably as good as it has been all year. I thought we really shared the basketball. I thought we hit the right person. I thought the looks were good, guys were catching balls in rhythm and when you do that, you can get on a roll like we got tonight. I was really happy to see our guys do that because it's something we've been working on for the last several weeks, but you need them to see the result. Tonight, they were able to see the result of doing it the right way."
On Andy Brown playing his first career home game...
"I was so excited for Andy. That was Andy's first opportunity to get in and score, and I'm just so excited for a kid that had three ACL tears but kept coming back. Talk about perseverance ... He's great for our guys and he gives our guys a big lift, to see what he does in practice, to see him go into games. I can see the lift it gives everybody because his spirit is in us. What he has done the last three years he has been with us, the sacrifices he has made, we're just very proud of him."
Stanford sophomore forward Josh Huestis
On bouncing back from Thursday's close win against Utah...
"I mean, Thursday was a big learning game for us. After that we spent a lot of time reflecting on the game, watched film, went over it in practice and figured out what we needed to do to come out here. Colorado is a good team, we knew they were going to give us a fight so we knew we had to figure out what happened last game, fix it, and be ready to go."
On holding Colorado to 64 points...
"It's all about defense. You've just got to lock up and rebound it, that's what coach preaches and it's true. You can't let teams go on runs like we did on Thursday, and we learned that, so we just worked together better as a team on defense."
On recording four blocks...
"Defense is huge for me. I've been blessed with good timing, apparently. I try to play solid defense and if anyone gets to the basket, contest it as hard as I can without fouling, and tonight was a good night for that."
On rediscovering the team's defensive identity...
"We feel like we're a good matchup for anybody out there. I just feel like on Thursday night, it wasn't a good team defensive night. Tonight we just went out and played harder. We never look at it as, `Oh, we'll play this team better than that team.' On defense we go out there and we know that we can play every single team in the country well on defense."
Stanford freshman guard Chasson Randle
On pulling away with 45 points in the second half...
"I feel like we just executed well. Coach made the calls and we just adjusted to how they were playing us. We found guys in the right spots and we made shots tonight."
On the 20-point win against one of the best teams in the Pac-12...
"This is definitely one of the best performances for us on both ends of the floor, and we just want to keep improving. Keep this going to Washington State."
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COLORADO QUOTES
Colorado head coach Tad Boyle
Opening Statement...
"We tried to get a little aggressive defensively. We started doubling our ball screens, they got a couple of shooters loose, then they went up by five. We got out of that, thinking that's not working, but the floodgates opened and their shooters got loose. Our defense wasn't good enough to keep us in the game tonight. You've got to credit Stanford; they played a heck of a game. We knew rebounding was going to be a key, and they beat us on the boards -- and pretty handily."
On Stanford's second-half momentum...
"Momentum is a big part of college basketball. We tried to call a couple timeouts to try and stem the tide, but they made big shots when they had to. I like our team, our guys, but they just weren't good enough tonight. It was just an old-fashioned butt whooping."
On moving forward after the loss...
"What we learned from this road trip is that we've got to be tougher. Every time we step into the weight room, we've got to remember this game. We got manhandled out there. I'm telling you, to a man, those guys are strong, they are good jumpers and they crash the boards. What we take from this game is that we just have to do things better, execute better offensively and we've got to be tougher. We have a lot of young guys, and for us it's something different every night we have to address."
On the play of Josh Huestis...
"He got loose and made some big shots. He's a good player and played like it tonight. The thing that makes Stanford so good is that they are inside-outside. They have a great low-post presence with Owens, and they use him. They space the floor well. They're a good team."