STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Chasson Randle needs very little motivation to play basketball. Getting an extra boost of energy from the near-capacity crowd was a bonus.
Randle scored 23 points, Rosco Allen added a career-high 13 rebounds and Stanford beat defending NCAA champion Connecticut 72-59 on Saturday night. Anthony Brown added 18 points and Stefan Nastic had 13 points to go with 12 rebounds for the Cardinal (13-4), which won its third straight and seven of eight overall.
“It’s awesome to have Maples filled to the top like that,” Randle said of the crowd of 7,104. “It gave us energy.”
Randle, the Pac-12’s leading scorer, followed his 25-point effort in a victory over California on Wednesday with another show of marksmanship. He’s 15-29 (51.7 percent) other his past two games, including 8-14 (57.1) from 3-point range.
"Randle is a great player, Brown is a great player,” Huskies’ coach Kevin Ollie said. “They put pressure on the defense on all three levels. They can score on all three levels and that's a good recipe for guards."
Randle has scored at least 23 points in four of his last five games and has reached double figures in 16 of 17 games.
“We played with great energy and executed our game plan,” Cardinal head coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We were getting good looks in the first half and just not finishing them. We talked about setting down in the second half.”
Rodney Purvis scored 14 points to lead the Huskies (9-7), who lost their second straight after winning five of their previous six. Omar Calhoun added 11 points.
"They just wanted it more,” Purvis said. “They just wanted the ball more. Any 50-50 ball, they were getting it. That's all on us. The coach can't draw up any plays to fix that -- that effort and energy has to come from within the players.”
Stanford dominated play over the final 10 minutes, pulling away after Connecticut made it a one-possession game midway through the second half.
The Cardinal has beaten the Huskies two straight after losing their first four meetings in the series.
Stanford never trailed after taking the lead with 5:56 left in the first half. There were four lead changes and six ties.
Nastic and Allen allowed Stanford to overpower the Huskies on the boards, 48-24. The Cardinal's 18 offensive rebounds was a season-high.
“We needed guys to step,” Allen said. “They were coming off a tough loss and we had to be ready.”
Purvis hit a 3-pointer midway through the second half to draw the Huskies within 50-47 of Stanford.
The Cardinal went on a 14-2 run over the next seven minutes to pull ahead, 64-49, forcing a Connecticut timeout.
Stanford led by as many as eight points in the first half before the Huskies closed to within 32-29 at intermission.
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NOTES: Stanford is 2-4 all-time against Connecticut, also collecting a 53-51 victory in Hartford last December when the Huskies were ranked No. 10 in both polls … Connecticut’s visit represents the first time the Cardinal took a break in the middle of league play since March 1, 2011, when Stanford hosted Seattle University prior to the Pac-10 regular season finale against California … Stanford’s +24 rebound differential was its largest margin since Feb. 23, 2012, when the Cardinal matched that total with a 50-26 advantage on the glass at Colorado … Chasson Randle notched his ninth 20-point game of the season and 35th career. Randle (1,988 career points) is looking to join Todd Lichti (2,336) and Adam Keefe (2,319) as the only players in school history to reach the 2,000-point plateau … Stefan Nastic registered his fourth double-double of the season … Stanford is unbeaten in nine home games and 85-27 at Maples Pavilion under head coach Johnny Dawkins … The Cardinal next hosts Arizona on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. PT (ESPN2).
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Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
“I was really proud of our team. Not just because of the win tonight, but coming off three straight road games and then coming back home and having the quick turnaround, I thought our kids did a terrific job. I thought the energy was high. Especially the second half, I thought it was some of the best defense we’ve played all year.”
“Our seniors did a great job again of just leading us. It’s been somewhat of a common theme over the last few games and I’m happy to see the guys step up and make the plays they’ve made.”
“We’ve talked about [rebounding] being a very important part of the game. We challenged them before the game and said that if we’re going to have a chance to be successful, we’re going to have to board. They sent a lot of guys to the glass. They’ve very active, they’re long. And if we weren’t going to meet their activity, then that would really hurt us in the game. And we took it to heart. It was definitely a game where we really did execute the game plan as good as we could.”
Stanford Senior Chasson Randle
“Toughness. We played them really tough both last year and this year. We understand that they’re a great program, and to be recognized as an elite program, you have to be those teams.”
“Coach was on our heads about balancing out our offense and recognizing that we have to drive and hit post as much as possible as well. So, we’re trying to transition back into that. We can’t go 50-50, with 50 percent of our shots from three and 50 percent of our shots from two.”
“Stef, Rosco, and Anthony: all three of those guys were warriors for us tonight on the boards. You see Stef with the bandage on his head and still grabbing rebounds and fighting like that, it’s inspiring.”
“Man, it was awesome. Just to have Maples filled up to the top like that. It definitely gives us a boost of energy once you’re on the floor.”
Stanford Junior Rosco Allen
“They still are the national champions from last year. That’s a big thing. We just have to come out and fight against this team. We knew it was going to be a fight. They were coming off of a couple of tough losses but we had to be ready for them and their high energy.”
“I was just able to crash more because I was able to get hits further out from the rim. They played (Daniel) Hamilton at the four a lot and he was more on the perimeter so I was able to get running starts back in to crash, whereas usually, another team will have a bigger four-man who’s right on the block so I’m busy trying to box him out as opposed to just coming in and helping out.”
Connecticut Head Coach Kevin Ollie
"On the offensive end, we got some easy looks but couldn't convert. Credit to them - they had 18 offensive rebounds. This was just unacceptable from a UConn team. It's an embarrassment. We'll have to fix it, rectify it and get better by next game.”
"They got nine second-chance points on offensive rebounds. We've got to clean up our defensive backboards. To get out-rebounded by 24 -- that just comes down to toughness, and we're not committed to hitting somebody right now. We had a lot of turnovers, lot of indecision, a lot of floated passes, and they were taking them -- we were just not doing the smart thing from our guards and some of our bigs. We've got to go back to the drawing boards and work on some things, and hopefully we can play a better, cleaner game."
"Randle is a great player. Brown is a great player. They put pressure on the defense on all three levels. They can score on all three levels, and that's a good recipe for guards. We knew coming in it was going to be a dogfight, but not in my wildest dreams did I think we would get outrebounded by 24. That's something we have to correct, and in a hurry. They beat us up on the backboards and didn't allow us to get out in our offense and push the ball as we are usually capable of doing."
"We have to hit first, and commit to hit, and we didn't do it tonight. I'm going to make changes and keep making changes until I find the team that wants to play that type of basketball. No UConn team ought to be embarrassed like that."
Connecticut Sophomore Amida Brimah
"Not really, I just think the referees should have let us play, because they were calling tick-tack fouls. We played kind of timid today -- they beat us on the boards. We've got to play better than that. I needed to do my work earlier (against Nastic), I guess.”
Connecticut Sophomore Rodney Purvis
"There's always room for being more aggressive. We needed to be more aggressive not only on offense but mainly on defense and getting the rebounds. We were getting killed on the rebounds, it wasn't even close. We’ve got to want to hit somebody. The coach said for us to be physical and knock people down to get the rebound, but we didn't do that."
"They just wanted it more. They just wanted the ball more. Any 50-50 ball, they were getting it. That's all on us. The coach can't draw up any plays to fix that -- that effort and energy has to come from within the players. We need to play the guys who are bringing the energy and who want to hit somebody."