STANFORD, Calif.- Chasson Randle scored a game-high 26 points to lead Stanford past No. 23/25 UCLA on Saturday afternoon at Maples Pavilion.
Notching its third win over a top-25 opponent this year, Stanford led for essentially the entire game and shot a blistering 62.2 percent, its best performance since making 65.2 percent in a blowout of Harvard back on Nov. 9, 2007.
Winners of three straight, the Cardinal (18-8, 9-5 Pac-12) moved into third place in the Pac-12 standings and is three games off the pace of leader Arizona with four games to play.
Two days after breaking the school’s career record for blocked shots, Josh Huestis matched a career-high with 22 points to go along with six rebounds and five blocks.
Stanford’s offense was triggered by Randle, who shot 8-13 overall from the field and 7-10 from beyond the arc, becoming the first Cardinal player to make at least seven three-pointers in a game since Jeremy Green finished 7-15 from distance against Oregon State on March 9, 2011.
For Randle, it was a noticeable rebound from the first game in Los Angeles, when he shot 3-16 overall and 1-6 from long distance.
The Cardinal was efficient as well, making 11-20 from three-point territory and attempting only 45 shots overall while 17 assists led to 28 buckets.
UCLA (21-6, 10-4 Pac-12) entered the game averaging 83.2 points and having won seven of its last eight overall, but was held to 44.8 percent shooting. Pac-12 Player of the Year candidate Kyle Anderson was held to six points and five rebounds in 35 minutes.
Stanford grabbed a 38-30 lead at halftime, making 53.8 percent and building its largest lead at 30-18 with 6:41 to play following a layup from Huestis.
Dwight Powell, who missed his only shot in the first half, scored nine points in the first four minutes of the second half to help the Cardinal turn an eight-point game into a 52-39 lead. The highlight came when Randle stole the ball from Anderson to start a fast break. Randle lobbed a pass to Brown, who threw a lob back to Powell for a one-handed jam that got the fans out of their seats and led UCLA coach Steve Alford to call timeout.
The Bruins got back into the game with a 13-2 run that featured three baskets from Parker that cut Stanford's lead to 60-57 just past the midpoint of the half.
Brown answered with a three-pointer out of a timeout and Randle followed with another triple off an offensive rebound to build the lead back to 66-57.
Randle hit another three-pointer to make it 71-62 with 5:24 remaining and Stanford held on for the win.
Next up for the Cardinal will be a road matchup with Arizona State on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. PT on ESPNU. Stanford won the first meeting at home, 76-70.
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NOTES: Stanford snapped a three-game losing streak to UCLA, winning for the first time a 60-59 victory on Dec. 29, 2011. The teams split the season series … Stanford completed its second home sweep in conference play this year, also accomplishing the feat against the Washington schools back in January. The Cardinal is now 11-3 at home … Stanford improved to 7-14 all-time against top-25 teams under head coach Johnny Dawkins … Stanford’s last home win over a top-25 foe was a 76-52 rout of No. 10/12 Oregon last January ... Stanford’s three top-25 wins are its most since the 2007-08 squad tallied six victories against nationally-ranked teams ... The Cardinal is four games over .500 in Pac-12 play this late in the season for the first time since a 13-5 finish in 2007-08 … Two nights after breaking the school’s career record for blocks, Josh Huestis added five more tonight and now has 174. He reached the 20-point plateau for the first time this season and third in his career … For the sixth game this year, Stanford received at least 20 points from two players … With three rebounds tonight, Dwight Powell now has 801 in his career.
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Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
“I think it was just a very good win for our team, a very good win for our program. I thought UCLA came in as hot as any team in the country, and I thought our guys came prepared and won a real hard-fought game. I thought they made really good runs several times. Every time they made a run, our guys responded. It says a lot about our kids and their belief in what we were doing.”
“You know, I don’t really think this was the biggest win of the year. I look at those teams that we beat that were ranked prior to this, two other top-25 wins on the road and those were quality wins for us. At the time we beat all those teams, they were playing very well. So for us, I just look at it as another win we’ve had against another quality ranked team, and we want to continue to build.”
“It makes you feel real good when you see a guy knocking down shots. Seven three-pointers is phenomenal, and I thought Chasson did a great job. He got us off to a really good start. The early part of the game where everybody is settling in and feeling their way through it, I thought he came out ready from the tip and got us off to a good start, which was something that we needed.”
“Chasson pretty much has the green light for us, that’s for sure. He’s the one I want taking shots. I want him making plays, that’s a strength of his. And he understands that’s his role for his team, and his teammates understand it, more importantly. They understand it and they want him in those positions.”
“We made an emphasis to try to get Dwight the ball early to start the second half. I think he had the first nine points or so. He didn’t get very many touches in the first half. We knew we were going to need him if we were going to have a chance to be successful. And as you guys know, everyone who was here for the first game on Thursday, he got banged up pretty good, his head and shoulder. He took some blows, and so for him to give us what he did tonight was good, because I was a little concerned. And he came out and did phenomenal, especially in the second half.”
“I thought we did a great job of sharing the basketball. That’s something that we emphasized. We didn’t think the last time we played them we did a good job at all handling the basketball, taking care of it and getting good shots. And so our practice was about making sure we value the possession, making sure that we move it, that passes are crisp. We still had too many turnovers, way more than I would like. But we made connecting plays, so a lot of the shots were in rhythm.”
Chasson Randle
“I think it was a matter of us getting up the reps yesterday and just believing in ourselves, being confident. We were really locked in today.”
“It felt great. We knew the magnitude of this game. It was one that we felt like we had to win, and we did that tonight. Guys were really hyped up before the game, and now we just move on to the next and keep pushing.”
“Really, I think it was valuing possessions. We did a good job of answering their runs when they made a comeback, and we took our time and got good shots for each other. I think that was a big thing.”
“We spent a lot of time watching that game [against UCLA], and we were very bad, to put it out there. We wanted to come out tonight and have a different performance, and as far as being a different team, I think we are. I think we’re more focused, and tonight, I think we showed that.”
Josh Huestis
“We’ve watched a lot of film on the last UCLA game, and the one thing that really sticks out in my head is the team that played down in L.A. was a totally different team than we are now. We’ve taken a lot of steps forward. We’ve grown quite a bit. As you can see, we’re a much more aggressive team offensively and defensively, we’re tougher, we’re a more together team. And I really think that as long as we keep on that path, we’ve got unlimited growth and potential.”
“I go into each game trying to think about what I can control. Like last game, there are going to be nights where the shots just don’t fall, so the things you control are defense and rebounding. I really try to focus hard on that, and from that, everything else starts to go well. You get a rebound here or there, get a putback, start feeling good and everything. So I really try not to focus on any scoring or anything like that. I just try to keep it what I can control, and try and go out there and play as hard as I can.”
“I was really trying to be a momentum-shifter. They were starting to make runs, coming back at us. And then I got that opportunity, and you can talk to anybody around the game, even though a dunk may only be worth two points on the scoreboard, it can really add a lot more to the game than just points. It gets everybody going. So I tried to, like you said, put a little more mustard on it, make it as aggressive as possible, kind of send a message like, ‘No, we’re not letting you come back into this game. We’re going to take it from here.’”
“Obviously it’s a huge help when you’ve got a guy like Chasson, who can not only drive but can step out and hit 3s. It really pulls the defense up because they have to worry about him a lot more. It opens it up for everybody else, and of course, with the amount of shots Chasson was hitting tonight, it really opened it up and everyone was able to get involved.”
UCLA Head Coach Steve Alford
“Stanford came at us really hard tonight -- they're playing for something, just as we're playing for something. They shot the ball extremely well. We haven't had a team shoot this well against us all year. Sometimes you have to say congrats to the other team. They played extremely well, and we couldn't match that tonight.”
“I thought our start wasn't bad -- we played at a high level. We had some guys that were much better in the second half than in the first half, and some guys just never got back into rhythm. In the second half we really competed, but we just couldn't get stops. They made everything, it seemed, and then we'd have a breakdown. Brown was big in the first half, Randle and Huestis were really good the entire game. Those three guys really got away from us.”
“We were not very good defensively tonight, and I thought we had some pivotal turnovers that were just careless. If they're aggressive turnovers, that's one thing, but we had more careless turnovers than usual. That affected our offense. We weren't very good defensively all night, and that's what got to change.”
“Stanford did a really good job with their pressure and their activity. They were impressive with their hands. They are active, they are big, they are aggressive and they showed it. They were much more aggressive and better defensively today than we were.”
“It's not like we're the only team that hasn't swept in the Bay (Area) this year -- nobody else has done it, either. We've won seven out of eight, now it's seven out of nine.”
Tony Parker
“We've got to lock in before every game; we know that everyone wants to come beat us. Tonight we just didn't do that. Stanford came out like they wanted to beat us. Those guys are winners, but I think my guys are winners too. I played with Chasson Randle for two years in USA Basketball -- I mean, they have good guys.”
“This is a big-time loss for us. We're one game behind Arizona if we win this game. This is the third time this has happened – we’ve got to pick it up and learn from this. We're taking hits. It's tournament time, it's February, we need to turn it up, but we took two steps back, so we’ve got to regroup.”
Kyle Anderson
“It was just a tough loss for us, things just didn't go our way. I guess we weren't totally ready for this game. The proof is in the pudding. This is definitely the toughest loss of the ones we've had on the road. We were a game away from having a very good weekend and we came up short, so this one is the toughest.”