Shocker! Stanford routs No. 4 Arizona in men’s basketball
STANFORD — Stanford hadn’t beaten anyone of note through the first 11 games on its schedule, but the Cardinal claimed victory over a top-5 opponent for the third straight season with a 100-82 rout of No. 4 Arizona on Sunday at Maples Pavilion.
The Cardinal made 12 of its first 17 3-point attempts and led by as many as 20 points in the second half.
Stanford (6-6, 1-1 Pac-12) arrived at the final day of the year having beaten no one ranked higher than No. 127 by the NCAA’s NET computer. The Wildcats (10-3, 1-1), who were coming off a 100-81 win at Cal, were No. 3 in the NET.
The victory came after Stanford’s wins over teams ranked in the top-5 of the AP poll each of the past two years — an 88-79 victory over No. 4 Arizona last season and a 75-69 defeat of No. 5 USC the previous year.
The Cardinal has beaten Arizona three times the past four years in the Bay Area.
Stanford’s two top-60 freshman recruits played a huge role in the upset victory. Guard Kanaan Carlyle, in just his fourth game since becoming academically eligible, enjoyed a coming-out party with 28 points and eight rebounds. He buried his sixth 3-pointer of the game with a 35-foot heave just before the shot clock expired, pushing the Cardinal to the century mark.
Andrej Stojakovic, the son of former NBA standout Peja Stojakovic, scored 16 points to go with five rebounds and three assists.
Senior forward Spencer Jones scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and was 5 for 6 on 3-pointers. Point guard Jared Bynum contributed nine points and a season-high 11 assists.
Caleb Love, a transfer from North Carolina, scored 23 points to lead Arizona.
The Cardinal stretched a nine-point halftime lead to 17 in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the second half.
Jones, who has made the second-most career 3-pointers in program history, came alive to connect on three straight from deep in a span of 56 seconds, pushing the margin to 60-43 with 16:25 left.
The lead moved to 67-48 when Stojakovic made a 3-pointer with 14:49 left. At that point, the Cardinal was converting a sizzling 71 percent (12 for 17) from the 3-point arc.
Carlyle and Stojakovic carried Stanford for long stretches of the first half, when the Cardinal led by as many as 15 points and was up 44-35 at the break. Arizona, which had a 31-point lead late in the first half at Cal two nights earlier, never led before intermission.
Carlyle, who averaged 8.3 points in his first three games, shot 4-for-4 from the 3-point arc and had 13 points by halftime.
Stanford was up just 22-21 when Carlyle hit a 3-pointer, then converted a four-point play by hitting a 3 and the ensuing free throw with 4:53 left. Bynum scored on a drive to the basket and Stojakovic flushed an impressive dunk off a baseline drive, capping an 11-0 run that made it 33-21.
Carlyle’s fourth 3-pointer and his pass to James Keefe for a dunk pushed the Cardinal’s advantage to 43-28 with 2:31 left in the half.
Stojakovic accounted for nine of the bench’s 27 first-half points, and Bynum, the grad transfer point guard from Providence, contributed seven points and four assists.