Dec. 15, 2012
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Dwight Powell spent too much time on the bench during the first half. He made up for it in the second half.
Powell scored all 20 of his points in the second half in leading Stanford past UC Davis 75-52 Saturday.
"Coach told me to stay ready and keep my head in the game," Powell said. "I stayed engaged as much as possible."
Josh Huestis added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Cardinal (7-3), which has won four of its last five games. Chasson Randle scored 12 points.
J.T. Adenrele scored a career-high 23 points to pace the Aggies (1-6), who lost their fourth straight. Corey Hawkins added 10 points.
"I stayed out of foul trouble, which allows me to stay in the game and get a rhythm going, get a flow," Adenrele said. "Once I get a flow, I feel pretty comfortable with the game and that's where I can make my moves and get my points."
Powell made his first eight shots of the second half after being limited to two minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.
"He showed maturity to come back with 20 points," Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins said. "I'm proud of him. In earlier years, I don't know that he comes back to that level."
Powell's mother died in September and her birthday would have been Friday.
"It was a terrific way to honor his mother," Dawkins said. "That was a great performance."
That was echoed by UC Davis.
"Powell is something else. He's a really good player," Adenrele said. "It's always an honor to play against players of his caliber. I'm happy with what I did against him. Of course, that dunk on me, that was crazy."
Powell's left-handed dunk capped the rally that put Stanford ahead 54-39. The Aggies were within seven points with 15 minutes remaining to play before the Cardinal got going.
"Our main focus was to reduce turnovers," Powell said. "We did that and it is an important step for us."
Ryan Sypkens, who entered the game as one of the nation's top 3-point shooters, was limited to a pair of 3-pointers, his fewest since connecting on one in the Aggies' season-opening loss at Oklahoma.
- by Rick Eymer, Associated Press
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NOTES: Stanford has won its last six games following the extended break for final exams ... The Cardinal improved to 16-1 all-time against UC Davis and has won four consecutive games in the series ... Stanford has held six teams to under 40.0 percent shooting so far this year ... The Cardinal boasted a commanding 45-30 edge on the glass, led by Josh Huestis' nine rebounds ... Stanford finished 18-25 from the free throw line and is now shooting 75.1 percent for the year. The Cardinal, which has shot better than 70.0 from the foul line only once in the last six years, is averaging 25.3 attempts from the charity stripe per game ... Dwight Powell notched his fourth 20-point game of the year ... Stanford racked up a season-best 12 steals ... The Cardinal's 40 first-half points were a season-high total ... Stanford has now made at least one three-pointer in 365 consecutive games, dating back to Nov. 24, 2001 ... Stanford recorded its first 20-point win of the year ... Rosco Allen and Gabriel Harris received starting nods for the second straight game ... Stanford embarks on a challenging road swing, facing No. 25/25 NC State (Tuesday) and Northwestern (Friday).
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QUOTES
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
"It was a great game coming off the break. I thought it was a terrific opponent. UC Davis could easily be 5-1; their record is deceiving and I think they've played very well. Jim (Les) has a really good team. And give our kids a lot of credit, having been away from the game for two weeks for finals and the reading period. I thought our kids came out and gave a terrific effort."
"I'm really proud of Dwight, not because of the 20 points. I'm proud of him because I think in years past, if he had a half where he got in foul trouble and only played two minutes, he wouldn't have bounced back to the level he bounced back tonight. He showed a lot of maturity to have 20 points in the second half against a good team, so I was really proud of that. I'm also proud because his mother's birthday was yesterday. His mother passed suddenly this summer, and that's difficult to handle. We talked about it yesterday and I thought his response was great today. He was able to go out there and honor her with a great performance."
"For us, our defense is ahead of our offense right now. I believe in our guys, I know we have some good shooters. Look, if we're defending like we're defending right now, I'll take it. The way we're defending, we're giving ourselves a chance to win against everyone every night, and we haven't shot the ball to the level I know we're capable of. So that's going to happen for us, as long as we continue to stay confident, believe in ourselves, as long as I continue to believe in them -- which I do, I love my team -- I think that's going to turn around and we're going to shoot the ball well. And I think we'll become an even better team."
"The two things we wanted to address for us during the break -- and it's hard over the break, as you know, because it's finals week because you may have a few of the guys or all of the guys, some have tests, some have study groups -- the things we wanted to get across to our guys was valuing the basketball, which is turnover prevention, and the other thing we wanted to get over was valuing every possession...I thought our guys did a good job for the most part of showing discipline and looking for good opportunities."
Stanford junior Dwight Powell
"Coach told me to stay ready. I sat because of fouls. He told me to keep my head in the game and cheer my teammates on. I stayed engaged as much as possible throughout the first half. I tried to keep myself ready."
"One of our main focuses [over break] was to reduce our turnovers, and we did so tonight. Which I think is important for us, to play smarter, take care of the ball."
"We see every game as an opportunity, and going up against NC State and Northwestern are definitely great chances to get some good opponents on the road, and really continue to work on what we're trying to do here."
"Coach Madsen is great, especially in practice. He brings a lot to the table with his experience. He's able to get into drills with us sometimes and bang with us. He's played multiple years in the pro leagues and it's a great thing to have, a great resource, especially to ask him about specifics because he's so short a time removed from the game ... It even translates over to us against each other, just because he preaches that we're supposed to be men down there and that's what we try to do."
UC Davis Head Coach Jim Les
"When we stuck to the script of what we wanted to do, we did some good things. We made them shoot 29 threes and that's what we wanted, but we needed to come up with first rebounds. They got a lot of second chances; those second-chance opportunities put them on the line, especially in the first half when Powell was out. There were instances of 50-50 balls tonight that we've got to come up with."
"Offensively, the ball stopped (for us). When we have good ball and player movement, we do some good things. Those are the things that we need to clean up. Give Powell credit; he sat the whole first half, so he's coming to get his. I thought some of our lack of intensity was that we focused on him and not giving him easy touches or giving him driving lanes. With Powell being out in the first half, I thought Josh Huestis did a nice job. We put a body on him, but he went over the top of us a couple of times and he kept balls alive."
"They (Stanford) have some size and length, and they close space pretty quick. We tried to shoot over some long, athletic guys versus making the extra pass, maybe another penetration -- that would have gotten us some better looks."