BERKELEY, Calif.- Dwight Powell notched a double-double of 22 points and 11 rebounds, pacing Stanford to an 80-69 victory over California on Wednesday night to open the second half of Pac-12 play.
Stanford (15-7, 6-4 Pac-12) also received 19 points from Chasson Randle and 16 points from Anthony Brown.
The Cardinal led the contest for all but two minutes, stretching its lead to 18 in the first half and putting the game out of reach midway through the second stanza.
Stanford shot 43.4 percent overall, made 6-14 from long distance and produced season-high totals in makes (28) and attempts (35) from the foul line. The performance was a sharp contrast from Stanford’s 10-20 total in the first meeting at Maples Pavilion. Powell did the bulk of the damage, making 11-14 from the charity stripe and improving to 21-26 over the last two games.
California (15-8, 6-4 Pac-12) was led by Justin Cobbs’ 24 points. The Golden Bears shot only 41.3 percent overall, 12-21 from the charity stripe and were forced into 13 turnovers.
Stanford first built a double-digit lead following a pair of free throws from Powell to make it 24-14 with 10:47 left in the first half. A three-pointer from Randle gave the Cardinal its biggest lead at 38-20 before the Golden Bears embarked on a 16-4 scoring run prior to halftime.
California trimmed the deficit to five points on three occasions in the second half, creeping within 52-47 following a jumper from David Kravish with 13:09 to play.
Brown responded with a jumper to trigger an 8-0 run before adding two free throws to put Stanford in front 64-51.
Stanford took advantage of multiple Cal turnovers and secured the game with free throws.
Stanford’s three-game road swing continues next week at Washington on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
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NOTES: Stanford has won four of the last six meetings against California and two in a row at Haas Pavilion … Dwight Powell notched his seventh double-double of the year and 20th of his career. The 20-point game was his fifth of the season and 15th career … In nine career matchups against California, Powell is averaging 12.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. His 112 points against the Golden Bears are the most against any Pac-12 opponent … Anthony Brown reached double figures for the 15th time this season … Josh Huestis was credited with one block, increasing his career total to 162 as he continues to chase Tim Young (167) for the school record … Stanford committed only nine turnovers and has now registered less than 10 miscues in six of the last eight games. The Cardinal is 6-2 during that stretch … Stanford’s six three-pointers came from five different players … Stanford improved to 11-1 when leading at halftime … The Cardinal has scored at least 70 points in 16 of its 22 games this year … John Gage attempted free throws for only the third game this year … Chasson Randle was celebrating his 21st birthday.
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Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
“Well, as always it is, an incredible game anytime you have a rivalry game. I think that was evident not only in the way the game was played but from last game to this game and within this game itself. I am very proud of our guys, and that is what I told them in the locker room. When Cal made the run to close the first half, that can be hard to withstand. They closed the half with two three-pointers and cut the lead to six. I was like ‘where is my team’, and I found out a lot about us. I found out that our guys have a lot of substance to weather that storm, come out and regroup. That says a lot about their character.”
“Dwight didn’t shoot the ball as well as he does, but he provided us with a presence out on the floor, whether he is on the perimeter or the post, people have to pay so much attention to what he does. What I am more happy about, and proud of, is that he took 17 shots and I am equally as happy that he had six assists. He makes guys better. He is capable of scoring himself but he has shown that and he is one of the best players in this conference and I think he showed that again tonight.”
California Head Coach Mike Montgomery
“We had trouble scoring. There’s no question about that. We had a run at the end of the first half that got us to six. We wanted to get it under 10 and we got it to six, which was probably better than we expected. We got three great looks coming out of the locker room that were probably the best shots we got in the whole game to start the second half but didn’t make any of them. We made some poor decisions mentally in that stretch rather than be patient. We couldn’t keep them off the foul line or defend. Some of the turnovers happened in a critical time. We didn’t do a great job on the boards blocking off so we couldn’t get the ball cleanly. We ended up shooting 41 percent for the game but it seemed a lot worse than that.”
“I can’t say I was surprised at how aggressive Stanford played, especially with us having beaten them there and coming off a pretty good weekend. They got a split but they could have beaten Arizona. They have been more aggressive than us on many occasions the last few years. They’ve been more aggressive in the games here. I think they were again. They’re very physical. We didn’t handle that very well. As a result we got ourselves in a huge hole. Then we got ourselves on a little run but we couldn’t sustain it.”
“Stanford was probably disappointed we won at their place. There were probably some raised eyebrows or surprise. They’ve pretty much held serve since then and matched us. Our work is really cut out for us. We’re going to have to look at each game as really important. I think Stanford deserved to win. I thought they played well. They had some key people perform. We had some key people not perform, not make shots and not do what they normally would do.”