March 22, 2001
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ANAHEIM, Calif. - Stanford's 7-foot Collins twins were too much for Cincinnati.
Top-seeded Stanford flexed its muscle inside to pull away in the second half and beat the Bearcats 78-65 Thursday night in the NCAA West Regional semifinals.
"We worked so hard for this. It's been a long way coming for us," Stanford's Casey Jacobsen said.
Setting a school record with its 31st victory against two losses, Stanford advanced to Saturday's regional final against third-seeded Maryland, a 76-66 winner over 10th-seeded Georgetown.
"Thirty-one and two sounds pretty good to me," coach Mike Montgomery said.
Jacobsen, playing 30 minutes down the freeway from his hometown of Glendora, scored a career-high 27 points and hit two 3-pointers to tie the single-season Stanford record of 82.
Jason and Jarron Collins dominated inside with their size and strength. Jason had 15 points, eight rebounds and blocked five shots, and Jarron added 14 points and seven rebounds.
"I haven't seen two big men like that all year," said Kenny Satterfield, who led the Bearcats (25-10) with 24 points. "They can win it all because they play so well together."
The Cardinal controlled the boards 36-25 - including a whopping 31-14 defensive edge - and forced Cincinnati into 39 percent field-goal shooting.
"We tried to get the ball inside," Jason Collins said. "We knew we had an advantage. It's very difficult to guard us one-on-one."
In the first half, however, Cincinnati had Stanford off-balance.
Using their quickness, the Bearcats fearlessly drove inside for baskets against Stanford's big men to take a 38-34 halftime lead.
The Cardinal committed 12 of their 17 turnovers in the first half and saw Cincinnati close the half with a 21-10 run after trailing 24-17.
"Cincinnati was as advertised, very physical and a very good half-court defensive team. They disrupted us in the first half," Montgomery said.
Ryan Mendez, who added 16 points, hit a 3-pointer to start the second half for Stanford. Jacobsen and the Collins twins combined for Stanford's next 10 points and a 47-42 lead, but the Cardinal were not yet in control.
Mendez became the 31st Stanford player to go over 1,000 career points, finishing the night with 1,014.
Cincinnati got four straight points from Leonard Stokes on a jumper and driving basket to cut its deficit to 47-46 with 13:32 remaining.
Just when the Bearcats were poised to regain the lead, they lost one of their tallest defenders, 6-11 Donald Little, to his fourth foul and guard Steve Logan picked up his third. Logan finished with 11 points.
"We got in some foul trouble and we just couldn't score enough," Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins said.
With no one stopping him inside, Jason Collins helped Stanford go on a 15-4 run that broke the game open. He had five points, Mendez added six and Jacobsen scored on a wide-open layin to give the Cardinal a 62-50 lead with 7:50 remaining.
"In the first half, I didn't get a lot of touches inside," Jason said. "In the second half, we ran the same play every third time down the court and they had trouble stopping it."
The Bearcats missed their first six shots of the game while Stanford quickly went inside to the Collins twins, who combined for 14 of the Cardinal's first 24 points.
Jacobsen had all 10 of Stanford's final points of the half after being held to three in the first 14 minutes. The Bearcats' press prevented Stanford from getting off a shot before the halftime buzzer.
By BETH HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
Stanford Athletics