Entry No. 3: Fields, Goods Key 99-44 Win; Card Leaves Rome
Courtesy: Stanford Athletics
Release: 08/24/2007
Aug. 24, 2007
ROME- Stanford cruised to its second straight lop-sided victory, easily defeating Stella Marine Ostia 99-44 on Friday night in Ostia.
A last-minute addition to the Cardinal's foreign tour schedule resulted in a sharp-shooting and defensive-minded performance.
A 29-3 first period advantage set the tone while Landry Fields and Anthony Goods once again carried Stanford to a convincing win on an opponents' home court. The Cardinal was coming off a 103-52 rout of Veroli on Wednesday night that kicked off a seven-game, 11-day foreign tour.
"We were much sharper tonight because we practiced 45 minutes," said head coach Trent Johnson. "We jumped them early and got up by 25. I thought we played with a lot more energy and enthusiasm and took care of the ball. We also defended well, considering this was a long day and everyone was on their feet quite a bit."
Fields contributed a team-high 18 points, six rebounds and five assists while Goods poured in 17 points, thanks to a 5-5 clip from three-point territory.
Brook Lopez added 12 points and a team-best eight boards while Kenny Brown and Will Paul chipped in with 10 each. Drew Shiller finished with seven assists to go along with five points.
The teams played four 10-minute periods, and the game featured a 24-second shot clock and extended three-point line. Any ball on the rim could be tipped in on offense or tipped out on defense.
Johnson employed a starting five of Mitch Johnson, Brown, Fields, Brook Lopez and Peter Prowitt, and that combination clicked from the start. Leading the charge was Fields, who posted a gaudy stat line of 11 points, five rebounds, three steals while going 3-4 from the charity stripe in the first 10 minutes. Stanford knocked down its first five shots of the game to take a 10-1 lead by the 8:19 mark. Following an Ostia bucket, the Cardinal wrapped up the period on a 19-0 scoring run that featured several easy transition baskets after forced turnovers.
Starters for the second period included Shiller, Da'Veed Dildy, Goods, Lawrence Hill and Robin Lopez. This time around it was Goods' turn to erupt, as he knocked down his first four attempts from beyond the arc. His second three-pointer gave Stanford its first 30-point lead, putting the Cardinal up 37-7 with 7:38 remaining in the quarter.
The original starting lineup took the floor once again in the third period. Fields picked up where he left off, scoring Stanford's first two baskets for a 56-21 lead and connecting on a jumper for the last shot of the half to give the Cardinal a 77-30 advantage.
The starters from the second period reappeared in the fourth. Dildy scored all eight of his points over the final 10 minutes while Shiller's only three-pointer of the contest gave Stanford its first 50-point margin at 84-34 with 8:11 on the clock.
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Final totals: Fields (18 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 1-4 3FG, 3-4 FT) ... Goods (17 points, 5-5 3FG, 2-2 FT) ... Brook Lopez (12 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2-2 FT) ... Brown (10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 0-3 3FG, 0-2 FT) ... Paul (10 points, 5 rebounds, 6-7 FT) ... Prowitt (9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 3-6 FT) ... Dildy (8 points, 3 rebounds, 0-2 3FG) ... Hill (6 points, 4 rebounds, 2-6 FT, 0-1 3FG) ... Shiller (5 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists, 1-4 3FG), Robin Lopez(2 points) ... Johnson (2 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 0-1 3FG).
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Thursday and Friday mornings were reserved for sightseeing in Rome, with the travel party making stops at the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, Vatican, St. Peter's Square and Sistine Chapel. The following is an account from Drew Shiller, who has emerged as the team's unofficial "tour guide" thanks to a recent Italian course. Shiller can often be heard pointing out landmarks or helping translate items on a menu. Here's what he had to say about Thursday's experience:
"Today was an amazing day filled with sightseeing of the Colosseum, Circus Maximus and the Roman forums. We boarded the bus at 9 a.m. and met our tour guide who first led us on a bus tour through downtown Rome and pointed out many landmarks and historical sites that I had never heard of. As the bus dropped us off in front of the Colosseum, I truly felt butterflies in my stomach I was so excited. On top of the excitement, our tour guide was able to bypass the horrendously long lines and skip to the very front where we took a team photo before climbing the stairs to our first visuals inside the infamous spectacle.
I can truly say that there are very few things that rival the sensational feeling of my first visuals from inside the gargantuan amphitheatre. The movie Gladiator can do no justice to the aura of walking through the levels, feeling the 2,000 year- old stone, being ground-level with the stadium's "battlefield," and imagining 50,000 Romans yelling at the top of their lungs for their favorite warriors to survive.
Our tour guide provided us with many obscure details about the Colosseum's history and purpose and I left truly feeling like I had accomplished something from life's checklist of, "must-do things."
After the Colosseum we walked by the remains of the Circus Maximus where many Roman horse races were held, and was the location of the infamous race in the movie Ben Hur. Finally, we made our way into what our tour guide called, "the heart of Roman activity," the Roman forum. The forum today looks like the remains of a battlefield, with many hollowed out temples and buildings, beautiful statues and archways, dirt paths and Latin engraved phrases. We saw the location of where Julius Caesar's ashes are located- a place that our tour guide explained to us still receives thousands of flowers each year on March 15 (the date of Caesar's infamous assassination). The forum was so large that it was believed that 300,000 people could comfortably stand and gather for important festivities. There were so many tourists that I was able to somewhat picture what a typical day in the forum of Ancient Rome may have looked like. The day was unforgettable.
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Stanford's tour bus had just made its second pass in front of St. Peter's Square when suddenly a loud screen was heard on board.
"There he is! There he is! Open the door! Just open the door, I don't want to lose him!"
Everyone heard team photographer Kyle Terada loud and clear as the bus came to a stop. Only he was not referring to a sighting of Pope Benedict XVI.
Instead, he had successfully spotted athletic trainer Charlie Miller, who had become separated from the rest of the group. Miller, making the trip in place of men's basketball trainer Tomoo Yamada, was somehow located by Terada approximately 200 yards away next to the church exit among a throng of tourists.
"I remember Ned (Stanford's tour guide) telling us to meet by the back of the church at 1:55," explained Miller, who received some good-natured ribbing as he ran to the bus and found his seat.
"So I circled back, did not find anyone and thought to myself `this is the kind of group that should be easy to spot.' I waited by the top of the church for about 15-20 minutes, then asked an English-speaking guard if he had seen a basketball team go by and he told me no.
Miller then waited for a few more minutes and started to head out to the entrance of the Square before he eventually heard Terada calling his name.
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Stanford's tentative remaining tour schedule looks like this:
- Saturday, Aug. 25 vs. Montegarnaro (at Norcia)- 8:30 p.m. local time
- Monday, Aug. 27 vs. TBA (at TBA)- TBA
- Tuesday, Aug. 28 vs. Biella (at Vigliano Biellese)- 8:30 p.m. local time
- Wednesday, Aug. 29 vs. Varese (at Varese)- 8:30 p.m. local time
- Thursday, Aug. 30 vs. Fastweb Casale (at Valenza)- 9 p.m. local time