STANFORD, Calif.- Stanford defeated Arizona State 76-70 on Saturday afternoon at Maples Pavilion, coming away with a home split and bouncing back from a heartbreaking 60-57 loss to No. 1/1 Arizona three days ago.
Stanford (14-7, 5-4 Pac-12) was fueled by the aggressiveness of Dwight Powell, who matched his season high with 28 points to go along with five rebounds and five assists. Powell, who scored 17 of his game-high 28 points in the second half, cashed in at the foul line with a 10-12 clip.
Chasson Randle also bounced back from a tough shooting night against Arizona, scoring 21 points on 8-14 shooting.
Despite shooting 39.3 percent overall, the Cardinal dished out 14 assists and converted 22-29 from the charity stripe. Stanford also held a 28-12 points in the paint advantage, grabbing 15 offensive rebounds to help gain a 15-4 edge in second chance points. Josh Huestis and Anthony Brown each pulled down nine boards.
Arizona State (16-6, 5-4 Pac-12) was led by Jahii Carson and Jermaine Marshall, each of whom scored over 20 points in the game. Carson finished with 24 points while Marshall tallied 22 on 6-8 from three-point range.
The first half featured four ties and six lead changes with Arizona State taking a 33-32 lead into the break.
Leading 41-36, Stanford embarked on a 14-6 scoring run that resulted in its largest lead of the contest following a three-pointer from Powell to make it 55-42 with 12:14 on the clock.
Arizona State eventually cut the deficit to single-digits with eight minutes to play, and whittled the lead down to a 67-62 following a one of three triples from Carson with 3:15 remaining.
A three-pointer from Marshall brought the Sun Devils within 70-67 before a free throw barrage from Huestis iced the game.
Stanford next faces California in Berkeley on Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 6 p.m. on ESPN2. It’s the first of three road games for the Cardinal, who will then play the Washington schools on the road.
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NOTES: Stanford has won seven out of the last 10 overall and three in a row at home against Arizona State … The Cardinal owns a 5-4 record at the turn in Pac-12 play for the third straight season … Dwight Powell notched his fourth 20-point game of the year and 14th in his career. Powell’s 19 shot attempts were two off his career high (21) established last December at NC State … For the fifth game this year, Stanford received at least 20 points from two players … Stanford finished with nine turnovers and has committed fewer than 10 miscues in five of the last seven games … Josh Huestis finished with nine points and nine rebounds, coming up just shy of his sixth double-double of the year. Huestis tallied three blocks, increasing his career total to 161 in his chase for the school record of 167 held by Tim Young (1994-99) … Stanford has reached the 70-point plateau in 15 games this year … Stanford is 6-1 in games following a loss … Head coach Johnny Dawkins was one of nearly 100 men’s basketball coaches throughout the country that will be wearing the “Autism Speaks” pin on his suit jacket. Towson’s Pat Skerry and Marshall’s Tom Herrion, each who have sons on the autism spectrum, have started a nationwide campaign to raise awareness about this disease.
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Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
“I thought our guys did a very good job tonight of just bouncing back from a tough defeat the other night. We played against a very good Arizona State team, a team that won three games in a row, so we knew they were playing well. I thought our guys responded. They focused on the game plan. I thought execution was good, and it ended up being a great game.”
“Dwight set an aggressive tone, and that’s something that we’ve talked about. He’s capable, and I thought tonight, he showed a little bit of all the things he can do out there on the floor. For him, I thought it was a big step, because that’s something, it’s in him, and we needed it today. We needed every point that he had today. He had 28 and we needed them all.”
“Arizona State just really stretches you out. They’re the best 3-point shooting team in our conference, so it’s very difficult to guard those guys. Sometimes they’ll put three guards out there, because (Jonathan) Gilling is like a guard also, and a great shooter. So they really just get you stretched. When you have a kid like Carson, who is basically an NBA point guard out there, it’s hard to guard.”
“I thought we had a number of times where we thought that was a strength of ours, our ability to get to the boards, and it showed up on the stat sheet. Our guys did a really good job of working in the paint, getting us extra possessions. If you look at the second-chance points, it ended up being 15-4, and in a game like this, you need all of those.”
“I think, with nine games remaining in Pac-12 play, I look at my group — and I told them this the other day in practice — I still see that we’re improving, and that’s always exciting for me. Especially watching Dwight make a step like this tonight in a big game like the one we just played. I see growth in our guys. I see growth on the defensive end. I see some of our guys coming in are getting very comfortable. They’ve been giving us good contributions, and so they’re giving me more confidence in me putting them out on the floor.”
Dwight Powell
“We were pretty close at half, and we knew that we had to come out in the first four minutes and build a lead and start to create some separation, because they’re a great team and they were obviously going to continue to fight, regardless of the score. So we definitely came out with an aggressive mindset to start off the second half.”
“I think we have to improve in almost every area. We’re not a perfect team by any means in any area. I mean, defensively we’re improving, but there’s still things that we see on tape that we can improve on further: rotations, box-outs, taking away what teams want, 3’s — things of that nature. Offensively, still looking to get better shots and create for each other, within our offense, more efficiently. There are a lot of things that we need to work on.”
“Cal is a team we’ve already lost to, so that’s a very important game. Every single game we play in this league is important, like you said. It’s a very competitive league. Dropping a single game can change your fate, so we definitely have to treat these games seriously for the rest of the way out, regardless of who the opponent is or where it is.”
“Within our system, the way our offensive schemes are designed, to have that big post presence and try to hit him as much as possible. And once we get in there we know he’s going to get it up, so crashing is important. They also have Jordan Bachynski and he’s a great shot-blocker. We knew if we were going to go in there, we would have to be ready to assume a miss, if he was going to block a shot or change a shot in those cases.”
Chasson Randle
“Dwight did a great job tonight, and that’s the Dwight Powell we all know and love and need him to be. We love him anyway, but he did a great job tonight, really asserted himself offensively and defensively. For me, I think I was a little bit more patient today, just kind of let the game come, and my teammates did a great job finding me.”
“Carson is a great player. He’s so quick and able to change directions on the drop of a dime. I’m just glad we came out tonight and got the win, especially coming off a disappointing loss on Wednesday.”
“Last year’s game in the Pac-12 Tournament was definitely a big motivator for me. I didn’t play as well as I wanted to and we lost that game, so we definitely wanted to come out tonight and get the win.”
Arizona State Head Coach Herb Sendek
“The difference here tonight was definitely on the boards. I think Stanford outrebounded us 15-4 at one point. Even their guards were getting around our big guys and getting their hands on it. We've outrebounded our opponents in the previous three games, but we just couldn't get it done tonight. We were still there at the end but we’ve got to rebound the ball better.”
“Powell is a tough matchup for us, for anybody, really. I thought Powell and Randle were just excellent. Powell is a special player. He's big and strong. He’s athletic, he's experienced and he's skilled. He can play inside and out. He seems to me to be a prototype NBA power forward.”
“Randle is just a scorer. He's one of those guys who has a great way to get to the basket. He gets buckets very consistently, obviously, as his 19-point-per-game average indicates. For the most part, it was those two guys that did it for them.”
“It's been a real battle. It is such a tough league. We were told that the latest NCAA calculations had us with the toughest remaining schedule in the country. But with that comes opportunity. We're going to have to play very well, at a high level, to get anywhere in this league, as is everybody else.”
“In our league, it's amazing how many teams are going on the road and winning. I'd like to see a figure -- sometimes I think it's about 50-50. So being at home doesn't guarantee anything, you still have got to perform.”