Montecchio, Italy – In a wild, back-and-forth game, Victoria Libertas Pesaro, one of Italy’s top professional teams, escaped with an 84-81 victory over Stanford Sunday night in front of a sold-out, spirited crowd in Montecchio, Italy.
Sophomore Reid Travis, limited with foul trouble early, helped Stanford erase a 59-54 deficit at the end of three quarters with seven points in the first 2:49 of the fourth. He capped his scoring barrage with a put-back lay up and was fouled, converting the free throw to give Stanford a 63-62 lead with 7:11 remaining.
VL Pesaro responded with an 18-4 run over the next five minutes to surge ahead, 80-67 with just over two minutes remaining.
The Cardinal made a furious comeback over the final two minutes, highlighted by back-to-back three-pointers from Robert Cartwright during a 20-second span to pull Stanford within three points with two-tenths of a second remaining. Pesaro missed a pair of free throws on the other end to give the Cardinal one last chance, but the rebound bounced around and time ran out.
“I thought our guys did a great job for 40 minutes,” Stanford head men’s basketball coach Johnny Dawkins said. “I thought we really came out and competed well. We had a setback early in the first half when Reid [Travis] picked up his second foul. He had to sit most of the first half, which hurt us. However, everybody played with a lot of heart all game long. You have to credit to our opponent, they made plays when they needed to make them to win the game.”
Junior Marcus Allen guided another balanced scoring attack for the Cardinal with 19 points, while Cartwright finished with 18 and sophomore Dorian Pickens had 17. Travis posted his third-straight double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in limited minutes, while Rosco Allen rounded out Stanford’s double-digit scorers with 11.
VL Pesaro is one of Italy’s top professional teams, playing in the Serie A. The Lega Basket Serie A is the first-tier level club competition in Italian professional basketball where play determines the national champion. Pesaro’s roster includes five standouts from United States colleges that competed in the NBA Summer League – Shaquielle McKissic (averaged 12.4 ppg. last season for Arizona State and played with the Sacramento Kings in the 2015 NBA Summer League), Maurice Walker (All-Big Ten honoree last season at Minnesota, leading team in rebounds and blocks and played for the Orlando Magic in the 2015 NBA Summer League), Trevor Lacey (All-Atlantic Coast Conference honoree last season at NC State, averaging 15.7 ppg. and played with the 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Summer League), D.J. Shelton (standout for Washington State and played for the Atlanta Hawks in the 2014 NBA Summer League), and Semaj Christon (2014 All-Big East selection, averaging 17.0 ppg. for Xavier and played for the Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2015 NBA Summer League).
The Cardinal led by as many as 11 (15-4) in the first quarter and used a Pickens jumper at the buzzer to take a 23-17 advantage after the first 10 minutes of play. Pesaro out-scored Stanford, 22-15 in the second quarter to take a 39-38 advantage into the half, grabbing its first lead of the contest in the final minute of the first half.
The Cardinal used a Marcus Allen jumper and free throw to re-gain the lead at 52-51 with about four minutes left in the third quarter, but VL Pesaro responded with eight of the final 11 points of the period to take a 59-55 advantage and set up the wild final quarter.
“To be able to come over here and play in an atmosphere like we had tonight with a sold-out, standing-room only crowd is a great experience for us,” Dawkins said.
Stanford will next take the court in Mantova on Tuesday night (Sept. 1) against the Mantovana Stings in the fifth game of its six-game exhibition tour of Italy.