Breakthrough on hold for Cardinal, but Stanford appears to be close

There were some hard-felt emotions among the Cardinal after falling just short in a 75-73 loss to Oregon at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford battled one of the nation's best teams and rallied repeatedly in the face of the superior athletes from Eugene. But the Cardinal's strength failed them at a key point in the game.

Stanford finished with a 37-25 rebounding advantage over the Ducks, but four of the boards for Oregon came on one possession in the final minute of the game.

Michael Humphrey tied the game at 73 with 1:34 remaining on a short jumper after a scramble for the ball near mid-court. Oregon was then forced into four tough shots by the Cardinal defense and grabbed four offensive boards. Jordan Bell eventually rolled in the go-ahead score with 14 seconds remaining.

Stanford had a chance to tie the game and got the ball to their most talented player, Reid Travis. The burly center was forced left and lost the ball in a physical sequence in the final seconds of the game.

"I want to say we had a timeout around the two-minute mark (and) I told the guys, 'If we limit them to one shot we're going to like the results,'" said head coach Jerod Haase. "It wasn't a lack of effort. When I look at the tape it might be lack of execution on box outs, but they had guys flying in there to get it. We weren't able to match the athleticism and if we're not able to do that we need to execute and really get guards in there rebounding. The ball bounces a different way on one of those it's a tie game with the last shot."

It was clearly a devastating ending for the Cardinal. After the game it appeared Travis was holding back some emotion when talking about Stanford's progress this season and playing with the seniors.

"I'm always motivated ... but there is a little extra when you see guys like Christian (Sanders), Marcus (Allen) and Grant (Verhoeven) shedding tears when they're being called up," he said. "It's the last time they'll be on this court. I still have a year left, but looking at them there is no choice but to be motivated. I wanted that win bad. I wanted to send them off the right way. Seeing that, them and their families, the legacy they leave behind, that was all the motivation I needed.

"If you look at some of the close games we've had, some of the losses we've had, it's that little hump that we need get over. We're playing at a high level now, competing with teams that are ranked, but we're still not there. It is very frustrating. The potential is there."

Of Stanford's 14 losses it does not require much imagination to see how a better closeout of several recent games -- at Arizona and ASU and at home against Oregon -- could have the Cardinal in an interesting position to make a charge for the postseason. As it stands the Cardinal have to win the Pac-12 Tournament, a herculean task in Las Vegas.

"We've grown and grown and grown this year as a team in many different ways, but we have to finish games now," Haase said.

There was a time not long ago, in the first half of conference play, that Stanford couldn't stay close enough to take the game into the final minutes or seconds. Arizona delivered a historic loss to Stanford at Maples Pavilion, 91-52 on Jan. 1. At Oregon on Jan. 21 Stanford lost 69-52 and at Cal on Jan. 29 Stanford lost 66-55.

The second round: at Arizona it was 67-67 with 1:56 remaining, Stanford defeated Cal 73-68 and the near miss against Oregon.

"We continue to improve, which is important and it's good, but it's even cooler when the ball hasn't bounced our way," Haase said. "It's not like, 'Hey, we beat Arizona and we believe now.' It's not like we beat Arizona State on the road and now we believe. The guys have believed when times have been tough and that's ... a sign of character. It's really cool as a coach. I keep telling them something good is going to happen, and it didn't happen today, and maybe there is something even bigger down the line for this team that's going to be really cool. I'm very proud of what we're doing from the coaching staff to the players and managers and trainers. I think we're doing the right things."

Dorian Pickens poured in six three-pointers to finish with 18 points and was often either a great stabilizer in the face of an Arizona run or the final push to tie the game.

Marcus Allen had 13 points and a key three from the corner in front of Stanford's bench to tie the game at 69.

Josh Sharma had his best performance since early in the season with eight points, two blocks, one three and one monster put-back dunk.

"It was a beautiful thing to see everybody who came in, gave minutes today, was fired up," Travis said. "I feel like they spilled everything they had. If we can keep on doing that we'll definitely be more successful."

"I take a lot of pride in senior night and try to make sure it's a special day for those guys. I take it really seriously. People asking me what my best playing memory was and it wasn't the championships or anything else, it was my senior night back in Kansas. I don't even know if I scored a basket in the game. It is important to me to provide that kind of experience for the guys. I do take it on my shoulders that we weren't able to get that done for them today. Every senior night I'm going to be involved with, however, is going to be very important. There's going to be a huge emphasis on that.

"In terms of after the game I told them how much I care about them and appreciate them. We talk a lot about culture in this program and I think we're building a heck of a culture. And those three are really the foundation of that culture because of how much they believed in it and handled themselves."

The winningest men's basketball coach in Stanford history, Montgomery was recognized for his recent Hall of Fame induction.

Montgomery was part of a 2016 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame induction of class that also included DePaul's Mark Aguirre, Kansas State's Bob Boozer, Illinois State's Doug Collins, La Salle's Lionel Simmons, UCLA's Jamaal Wilkes, Georgia's Dominque Wilkins, and fellow coaching legend Hugh Durham.