On Tuesday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Cal 57-50 in a low scoring, half-court kinda game that was not the most beautiful of games to watch. Stanford senior forward Jaiden Delaire (12 points & 4 rebounds) and freshman forward Harrison Ingram (12 points & 4 rebounds) were the top scorers for Stanford while junior forward James Keefe had a near double-double with 8 points and 11 rebounds. The top performers for Cal were graduate transfer guard Jordan Shepherd (15 points & 5 rebounds) and junior center Lars Thiemann (11 points & 6 rebounds), who was starting in place of injured senior forward Andre Kelly. Stanford improves to 13-7 overall and 6-4 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 9-13 overall and 2-9 in the Pac-12.
“Well, Cal is, you know, they’ve been in so many of these games and they’re very very well coached,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “They’ve had their own share of adversities, but I thought they competed really hard, but on the flip side I thought we did as well. It was a very physical game, there were no easy baskets for either side. On the offensive end, we were able to make just enough plays to stretch the lead just a touch. But I thought defensively, I was really proud of our guys, they embraced the grind, and kept their numbers down. But I thought they really bought into the fact that this was not going to be easy.”
Stanford got out to a strong 9-4 lead with 15:45 to go in the first half. Junior forward Spencer Jones was up to 3 points and 3 rebounds for Stanford, who was shooting 4-6 from the field and out-rebounding Cal 5-0. Cal was shooting 2-5 from the field; off to a slow start offensively.
Stanford would continue to lead up 14-9 with 11:29 to go in the half. Jones was now up to 5 points while Delaire was up to 4 points. Sophomore guard Jalen Celestine was leading Cal with 3 points, nailing a triple. Stanford was shooting 6-11 from the field while Cal was shooting 3-10.
Things started to shift in Cal’s favor as the Bears went on a 9-0 run over 4+ minutes to lead 18-14 with 6:16 to go in the half. Cal fifth year senior forward Grant Anticevich was up to 5 points, finding a bit of a rhythm. Stanford hadn’t scored in the last 5:35, really needing to get a bucket to end the drought.
Stanford sophomore forward Max Murrell ended the drought by knocking down a triple. With 3:09 to go in the half, Cal led 18-17. Spencer Jones got a little lazy in transition as Shepherd caught up and forced the turnover. Stanford would have been up 19-18 had Jones finished strong.
At halftime, Stanford led 21-20 thanks to 4 points from Ingram. Jones was leading Stanford with 5 points and 4 rebounds while Anticevich’s 5 points was leading Stanford. It was an ugly half from both teams.
“Cal does a great job of getting shots late in the shot clock,” Haase said. “They play a slow tempo. Neither team turned the ball over a ton. So there weren’t a lot of transition opportunities. We didn’t get a ton of long rebounds that turned into transition opportunities, and so it turned into a half-court, physical, tough, hard-nosed game.”
“I think honestly, it was just a little bit stagnant in the first half,” Keefe said of the offense. “We talked a lot about pace during halftime and just getting the ball moving, getting downhill off screens. But, I think coach gave us a good plan and we got it going from there. So, I guess you could say stagnant.”
With 15:32 to go in the game, Stanford led 27-24 as Jones was up to 7 points and 5 rebounds. Stanford was showing a little more life, but the game was still tight. Stanford was shooting 3-4 from the foul line for the game, not getting to the line as much as they needed to.
Stanford would soon go on a 6-0 run over a span of 1:57 to lead 35-28 with 10:49 to go. James Keefe got a gritty basket inside while sophomore forward Brandon Angel made a corner three. Stanford was looking like they might gain some permanent separation.
To Cal’s credit, they continued to battle and got rewarded for their efforts as Grant Anticevich got a bucket inside followed by a mid-range corner jumper from graduate transfer guard Makale Foreman. Cal really needed those to fall. As a result, Stanford led 35-32 with 8:41 to go.
The game continued to be tight as Stanford led 39-35 with 6:44 to go. Lars Thiemann got a 3-point play for Cal while sophomore guard Michael O’Connell got a nice steal and finish in transition for Stanford. After the timeout, Brandon Angel would go to the foul line and go 1-2, making it a 40-35 lead for Stanford. With 5:27 to go, Stanford led 45-37 after O’Connell got fouled and made both foul shots of a one and one. Stanford once again had a chance to pull away.
Over the next few minutes both teams would essentially trade baskets as Stanford led 49-43 with 2:43 to go. Ingram got a nice bucket inside and Jones got a put back for Stanford; Shepherd and Celestine each had buckets inside for Cal. Stanford had the ball.
A bucket from Delaire would make it a 55-45 lead for Stanford, but Shepherd would respond with a triple for Cal, making it a 55-48 game with 19.3 to go. Cal still had a pulse, but it wasn’t looking pretty for them. They’d have to play the foul game and hope Stanford would do something silly.
In the end, Stanford would hang on, winning 57-50. It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but as tennis great Brad Gilbert points out in his book Winning Ugly, sometimes you just have to do whatever is necessary to get the win and Stanford did that tonight. Mission accomplished.
“Honestly, I’m really proud of the guys,” Haase said of how he feels his team is coming together. “This has been a grind, a tough schedule. From the road games to the quick turnarounds. But to be where we are at the half-way point I think is fantastic. We’ve had some really good wins against some really good teams. Obviously we’ve had our setbacks as well. But moving forward, we’re going to have to address getting good shots. Which is the idea of turning the ball over less and then also making plays for others. So we’re getting high quality shots on the offensive end. We need to continue to rely on rebounding on both ends of the floor and try to be a physical team inside like that. And then defensively, we need stability with our energy and our toughness and knowing personnel can use our length as much as we possibly can.”
“I would say that’s the type of team we are,” Delaire said of winning a grind it out kind of game. “We got a lot of pieces that do a lot of different things and we got guys like Keefe that play super super tough on both ends of the floor. So we have no problem grinding it out, being a gritty, tough team. Like that’s what we do. That’s where we hang our hat is on the defensive end and getting stops. So even though the offense maybe wasn’t clicking at the highest level or what we could be doing on the offensive end, we were able to dig in and get stops on the defensive end. So yeah, we have no problem grinding it out in tough games.”
As for Cal, this is their 8th loss in a row and the frustrating thing for them is that this isn’t a result of effort or coaching on their part. They’re battling hard every night and doing everything they can to make the games they play competitive. Their coaching staff is putting together excellent game plans and the players seem to be buying in. However, they’re finding out that great effort and game planning doesn’t always translate to victories. At some point, Cal needs to walk away with more than just moral victories and head coach Mark Fox knows that.
“I felt like we created the style of game we wanted to play,” Fox said. “Obviously without Andre Kelly we wanted to play the game the way that we did. I think at the end of the day, we had several plays at the rim where we missed some layups, we had some turnovers that gave them layups, and that ultimately separates who wins from who loses.
“I thought our defensive effort was pretty good, but not as good in the second half when we got a little bit fatigued. We just have to play a little bit better in order to win. Getting close is not what we came to do.”
Up next for Stanford is another home game on Thursday against Washington State. That game will tip-off at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks and Cardinal Sports Network radio.
Note: Sophomore guard Noah Taitz (lower leg) was still out for Stanford. Below is what Jerod Haase said about his return timeline and what it’ll mean to get him back:
“Yeah, we don’t have a timetable at this point still. So, I don’t have anything more on that unfortunately. But yeah, with Noah, he adds a real spark to the team, has the ability to shoot the basketball at such a high rate and we’re anxious to get him back and do think that could add depth and quality depth at that.”
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