STANFORD, Calif.- Rosco Allen missed all but seven minutes of last season with various injuries. He’s ready to make up for lost time.
Allen scored a career-high 17 points, Chasson Randle added a game-high 23 points and Stanford beat South Dakota 84-73 Sunday as part of the Northwestern Mutual Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.
“That whole year I loved being part of the team and going deep into the tournament,” Allen said. “It’s a different feeling out on the court instead of being on the sidelines. I’m so happy and maybe we can make another run this year.”
Stefan Nastic scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots for the Cardinal (2-0). Anthony Brown added 11 points and 10 boards for his first double-double since last November and fourth career.
Brandon Bos scored 19 points, including his 100th career 3-pointer, for the Coyotes (0-2). Tyler Larson added 11 points before fouling out.
Randle made all 12 of his free throw tries and the Cardinal shot just under 83 percent for the game. Stanford’s 38 made free throws and 46 free throw attempts were the most since the Cardinal converted 40-47 in a victory over Cal State Northridge back on Nov. 18, 2008.
“You hear it often that things on the court are contagious,” Randle said. “That includes free throws. When someone hits the first one, everybody wants to make them.”
Allen made five of his first seven shots but the Cardinal never did run away from the Coyotes.
“Our defense is really coming along,” Coyotes’ head coach Craig Smith said. “Our guys executed the game plan very well on both ends of the floor. Our guys dug their feet in the sand, stood their ground and gave ourselves a chance.”
Sekou Harris hit a 3-pointer and then made a free throw to cut Stanford’s lead to 65-59 with 7:26 left in the contest. That would be as close as they would come.
The Coyotes drew within three with 8:45 remaining in the first half on a layup by Austin Sparks.
Stanford responded with a 13-2 run to open a 14-point advantage and South Dakota never recovered.
The Cardinal took a 40-26 lead into the intermission.
NOTES: For the second straight game, four Cardinal players scored in double figures … Stefan Nastic also dished out a team-high four assists, giving him eight over the first two games … Seniors Anthony Brown, Stefan Nastic and Chasson Randle are a combined 37-39 from the foul line this year. The rest of the team is 18-35 … Chasson Randle’s 12 made free throws were the most by a Stanford player since Landry Fields finished 14-19 against Oregon back on Jan. 23, 2010. The Cardinal has produced only two other perfect double-digit efforts since the start of the 2007-08 campaign: Randle (10-10 on Feb. 20, 2014 vs. USC) and Jeremy Green (10-10 on Feb. 18, 2010 at Oregon) … The Cardinal held a 42-19 rebounding edge … Dorian Pickens scored his first career points, knocking down a bucket and making the first of two free throws … Marcus Allen played 22 minutes off the bench, finishing with eight points … The Cardinal is 5-21 from beyond the arc over the first two games … Stanford and South Dakota were facing each other for the first time … South Dakota opens the season with five consecutive road games, the first four against teams who had at least 20 wins last year and played in a postseason tournament … Stanford next faces UNLV on Friday, Nov. 21, in Brooklyn, NY.
Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
“I give South Dakota a lot of credit. They came in to compete and they made it a 40-minute game. Difficult game for us, a lot of undersized players, they were able to spread the floor and a lot of good shooters that you had to get out to, which created opportunities for them, and they capitalized on them. We learned a lot about ourselves as a team facing this type of an opponent. I’m just happy we were able to win it and we can get better from this experience.”
“We’ve shot free throws relatively well in practice, and as we’ve talked about before, some of our guys who hadn’t had as much experience out in game situations are getting that experience now right in front of our eyes. They’re growing up because they’re put in those roles now. But I have all the confidence in the world that they’re going to be very good free throw shooters, it’s evident by how they shot it tonight. So it’s just a process of working through it and them getting comfortable on the floor.”
Chasson Randle
“South Dakota played great as a team for 40 minutes. They were really locked in at times defensively, and offensively they made shots and offensive rebounded very well. We have to get better to make sure that we keep improving and sure up some of those defensive lapses that we had.”
“You do hear that often that stuff on the basketball court is contagious, especially free throw shooting. Once you see the ball go in, it’s something that other guys pick up on too: you get into a rhythm and shots start falling.”
“Rosco gave us a huge lift in this game. He’s a great player with a lot of great potential — he’s kind of our X-factor.”
Rosco Allen
“I wanted to be aggressive. I wanted to go after guys both offensively and defensively. My teammates did a great job of finding me and I got a lot of easy opportunities early.”
“I’m so happy to be back on the court. That whole year last year, I loved being a part of the team, watching those guys go so far. But it’s a different feel being out on the court instead of on the sidelines and hopefully we can make another run like that.”
South Dakota Head Coach Craig Smith
“I was really proud of our guys out there tonight. To hold Stanford to 41-percent shooting is very good. Our defense is really coming along, our guys executed the game plan very well on both ends of the floor. We didn't sit there and crank up NBA threes all night. We shot good ones and we made them. There was a point or two in the game where it could have gone one of two ways: It could have gone south really, really fast. But our guys dug their feet in the sand, stood their ground and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end, but we just didn't have quite enough.”
“When you look at Stanford's roster -- first of all, Randle -- I mean, sometimes you just have to punt. You're just hoping he's disinterested because I'm not sure there's much the guy can't do. We tried to take away his right hand, but we really didn't. We just tried to corral him as best we could, but Randle is just really good: He hits 12-12 free throws, Stanford goes 38-46 from the line, and as close as we kept it, you're not going to win many of those games, brother, when you're on the road. Brown is really good, he can shoot it, and he was the one guy we thought we could kind of take away, limiting his threes, but we fouled him too much, letting him get to his right hand.”
“We did a good job trying to take Nastic away. Against Wofford, they didn't try any kind of doubles and he just tore them up. We were going to bring the heat to him no matter what. We had a stretch where we made a good run, and he was throwing it right to us on the help side, and that created easy transition buckets for us.”