National Basketball Association
Arizona 91, Stanford 52
When: 8:00 PM ET, Sunday, January 1, 2017
Where: Maples Pavilion, Stanford, California
Officials:
# Michael Greenstein, # Gregory Nixon, # Deron White
Attendance:
4396
By The Sports Xchange
STANFORD, Calif. -- Arizona's offensive capabilities were on full display Sunday evening as the No. 19 Wildcats continued their dominance of Stanford with a 91-52 victory over the Cardinal in a Pac-12 game at Maples Pavilion.
Arizona (13-2, 2-0 Pac-12) exploited its height advantage to the fullest extent. It led by as many 21 points in the first half and cruised to its seventh straight victory overall and its 14th straight win over Stanford.
Arizona finished shooting 62.5 percent from the field while making 10 of 14 3-pointers and 21 of 23 free throws.
Wildcats coach Sean Miller considered it his team's most efficient offensive performance of the season.
"Yes, because we shot the 3-pointer so well," he said. "The only thing we didn't do was protect the ball (19 turnovers), but the other stuff more than made up for it."
The Wildcats took advantage of their two starting 7-footers -- Dusan Ristic and Lauri Markkanen -- as well as 6-11 Chance Comanche off the bench.
"Coach told us ahead of time, 'Don't forget we have a size advantage,'" Comanche said.
Ristic, who was 8 of 10 from the floor in the win over California on Friday, was 7 of 10 for 16 points against Stanford. Markannen was 4 of 4, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range, while collecting 15 points. Comanche scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and added 10 rebounds.
The three big men combined to go 16 of 20 from the field.
"The game plan was to feed the bigs," said Arizona freshman guard Rawle Alkins, who hit 3 of 4 3-point shots and led the team with 19 points.
Freshman forward Kobi Simmons added 15 points for the Wildcats but was a mere 6 of 10 from the field.
Meanwhile, Stanford (8-6, 0-2) again struggled defensively. The Cardinal gave up 98 points on 51 percent shooting in Friday's loss to Arizona State and showed little improvement.
"At this point, I don't know if we're resilient enough to fight through adversity," Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. "We're not playing with passion."
Offensively, the Cardinal shot 33.9 percent from the field, were 3 of 16 from beyond the arc and made 11 of 23 foul shots.
Stanford guard Marcus Sheffield, who scored a career-high 35 points Friday against Arizona State, had just seven against Arizona.
Dorian Pickens scored 10 points to lead Stanford but was just 3 of 10 from the field.
Reid Travis, a 6-8 center and the Cardinal's leading scorer at 18.0 points per game, was limited to 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the floor.
Travis was averaging 8.7 free throws per game and Miller was pleased that Travis was limited to three free throws, making only one.
Travis admitted the Wildcats' size might have affected him somewhat, but he still thought he should have converted more of his shots from close range.
"There was a lot that went wrong in this game, obviously," Travis said. "But I think it wasn't our offense that let us down; it was our defense."
To top it off, at least half the crowd at Maples Pavilion consisted of Arizona fans, who were far more vocal than Stanford followers during the game.
"That's tough," Pickens said.
Miller said, "I've come to expect that from our fans."
Arizona's outstanding shooting helped it take a 49-30 lead at halftime.
The Wildcats led by eight points with 4:10 left before halftime but reeled off 13 straight points to increase the margin to 21 in the final minute before Stanford scored the final bucket of the half.
Arizona opened a 29-point lead early in the second half and was not threatened after that.
NOTES: Arizona's 14-game win streak against Stanford is the longest active winning streak between two Pac-12 teams. Oregon has won 13 in a row against USC. ... Arizona G Parker Jackson-Cartwright played his second consecutive game after missing six games with an ankle injury. For the second straight game, he came off the bench. ... Stanford G Marcus Sheffield had a career-high 35 points in the loss to Arizona State on Friday but was still averaging just 7.9 for the season entering Sunday's game. ... Stanford's next game is on the road against UCLA on Thursday. Arizona plays a home game against Utah on Thursday.
Top Game Performances
Arizona |
|
Stanford |
Rawle Alkins 19 |
Scoring |
Reid Travis 11 |
Parker Jackson-Cartwright 6 |
Assists |
Christian Sanders 4 |
Chance Comanche 10 |
Rebounds |
Reid Travis 8 |
Rawle Alkins 8 |
Free Throws Made |
Marcus Allen 3 |
Rawle Alkins 2 |
Steals |
Marcus Allen 2 |
Kory Jones 1 |
Blocks |
Michael Humphrey 1 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Arizona
|
91 |
62.5 |
10-14 |
21-23 |
20 |
35 |
1 |
6 |
19 |
Stanford
|
52 |
33.9 |
3-16 |
11-23 |
13 |
20 |
1 |
7 |
17 |