PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Dorian Pickens had a career-high 28 points, including a key 3-pointer with 76 seconds left, to help Stanford beat Washington State 79-70 on Thursday night.
Pickens, who came in 10 of 35 from 3-point range this season, made 7-of-10 3-pointers. Freshman Kezie Okpala added a career-best 21 points and Daejon Davis scored 15 on 6-of-7 shooting for Stanford (9-8, 3-1 Pac-12).
The Cougars led 55-47 when WSU's Kwinton Hinson committed a hard foul on Reid Travis and both players had to be separated by teammates. Stanford responded with a 21-3 run over the next nine minutes, 57 seconds, despite going six-plus minutes without a field goal during that stretch, to make it 68-58 with 6:26 to play. Washington State twice cut its deficit to three points from there, but Pickens hit two 3s as the Cardinal held on for its third win in a row.
Washington State made 11 of its first 12 field-goal attempts, including 4-of-4 3-pointers, but Pickens had 22 first-half points on 8-of-9 shooting. He hit back-to-back 3s to give Stanford a two-point lead before Malachi Flynn closed the half with three 3-pointers.
7 threes for @DorianPickens11 tonight.
— Stanford Men's Basketball (@StanfordMBB) January 12, 2018
SEVEN.
Watch 'em all ?? #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/tWVAhGoZw9
The Cardinal, who rallied for wins after being down 13 points at UCLA and 15 against USC, trailed 45-38 at halftime on Thursday.
Flynn led Washington State (8-8, 0-4) with 24 points, including seven 3-pointers. Milan Acquaah added 10 points, while Drick Bernstine scored eight and grabbed 12 rebounds. Robert Franks, who came in averaging a team-high 17.3 points per game, had eight points and six of WSU's 22 turnovers.
Travis, who came in the Pac-12's third-leading scorer (21.3 per game) and Stanford's second-leading rebounder (7.6), finished the game with six points and six rebounds.