Cardinal Fall to Huskies 65-60

January 12, 2013; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal guard Chasson Randle (5) on defense during the second half against the Washington Huskies at Maples Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports.

The Stanford Cardinal (10-7, 1-3 Pac-12) fell to the Washington Huskies (11-5, 3-0 Pac-12) by the final score of 65-60 on Saturday night at home in the friendly confines of Maples Pavilion.  Both Stanford and Washington ended with 2 scorers each dominating the game, but in the end the Huskies came out on top.  Washington wins their 3rd straight conference game of the season, all of them being on the road.

End of the Game

Stanford once again managed to show some resiliency at the end of a basketball game closing what was an 8 point lead about halfway through the second half into a 58-58 tie with 3:38 left in the game before failing to take the lead and eventually failed to win the game.  After Washington broke that tie Stanford’s Dwight Powell had two wide open looks, one from the elbow and one from the corner behind the arc, to retie and/or take the lead for the Cardinal but he was unable to hit either shot.  Instead the Huskies took advantage and from then on out were in control of the basketball game, ending the game 65-60 to start the conference season 3-0, and more importantly all 3 coming on the road.

Washington

The Huskies were essentially a two-man show throughout the game with C.J. Wilcox dominating the box score playing another 35 minutes and putting up 27 points and 9 rebounds as well as shooting 4-6 from three-point land.  His fellow teammate Aziz N’Diaye pitched in with 14 points including hitting 4-4 from the free throw lane, a couple of which broke the tie late in the second half, besting his season average which is under 50% for the season.  Leading the team in rebounds was forward Desmond Simmons tallying 13 total off the glass.

Stanford

The Cardinal were also led by two players throughout the game and conincidentally their two best scorers of the season thus far in Dwight Powell and Chasson Randle.  Powell ended the game with 19 points and 4 rebounds while Randle ended with 16 points and 4 boards off the bench behind Aaron Bright who was very unproductive in 33 minutes of play with 0 points, 1 board and 1 steal.  Josh Huestis also ended up scoring 8 points during the game but was only able to muster a 3-13 shooting night, and overall Stanford shot an abysmal 39% from the field including 3-17 (a whopping 17.6%)  from behind the arc.  These stats unfortunately point to the fact that their last game against Washington State was more of an outlier rather than a possible norm as for as the team’s offense goes.

One of my key players to the game, Andy Brown, played a pretty solid game but I was still hoping for a little more.  He did rack up 8 points and 3 assists but only 2 rebounds in 31 minutes of play for the game.  He did have a few great plays at the end of the game when the Cardinal were fighting to stay alive including a great defensive play off of an inbound pass and on the subsequent trip down the floor hit a clutch bucket for Stanford.  I’d say he performed admirably and hope he continues to play that way.

In the end Stanford reverted back to what it had been doing all season; relying on a few players to have monster games and hope that would carry the team.  Well, that strategy hurt them this evening and it led to a loss.  Like I said, basketball is a team sport and a team needs to play well together (not just a few players) in order for it to be successful, and that didn’t happen this evening.  Look for Stanford to bounce back against at home against the Cal Bears next Saturday the 19th in game three of their three-game home stand.