On Saturday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Cal 89-81 on the road in Berkeley. Stanford center Maxime Raynaud (20 points & 3 rebounds) and guard Jaylen Blakes (20 points & 6 assists) led the way for the Cardinal while guard Andrej Stojakovic (25 points) was the top performer for the Golden Bears. Stanford improves to 8-2 overall and 1-0 in the ACC while Cal falls to 6-3 overall and 0-1 in the ACC.

BOX SCORE: Stanford at Cal-Saturday, December 7th

Stanford led the entire way in this game, jumping out to a 7-0 lead within the first 80 seconds of the game as Maxime Raynaud had five points while Oziyah Sellers had a transition layup. After a triple by Ryan Agarwal, Stanford led 14-4 with 16:20 to go in the first half. Stanford continued to be in control as they led 20-11 with 11:42 to go in the half after a second chance jumper by Jaylen Blakes.

After a triple by Evan Stinson, Stanford was up 27-17 with 8:05 to go in the half. Cal would then go on a 6-0 run to make it 27-23 with 6:44 to go in the half as Andrej Stojakovic got going with a couple of buckets. At this point, it looked like this was going to be a close one. But then, Stanford turned on the jets, outscoring Cal 20-4 the rest of the half to lead 47-31 at halftime. Multiple guys got going for Stanford with a made jumper by Blakes at the very end of the half capping off an 18-2 run.

Cal got off to a nice start in the second half as they opened it up on a 5-0 run as Rytis Petraitis got a bucket inside followed by a second chance 3-pointer by Jovan Blacksher. It was now a 47-36 lead for Stanford with 18:28 to go. Stanford would then quickly get the lead back up to 15 points after a driving layup by Agarwal as it was 54-39 with 16:23 to go. It more or less remained around a 15 point lead for Stanford for the next little while. After a bucket inside by Aidan Cammann, Stanford led 66-49 with 9:12 to go and then Blacksher responded for Cal with a layup to make it 66-51 with 8:57 to go.

Stanford would gain a bit more separation to go up 77-57 with 5:37 to go after back-to-back threes from Raynaud. I was thinking in real time that if Stanford could get their lead up to 20 points, that would probably do it and in the end that ended up proving true as Stanford won by a final score of 89-81. I should note that Cal did make a bit of a run and got within six points (83-77) with 1:21 to go after a pull up 3-pointer by Stojakovic, but as I figured, getting down by 20 points proved to be too much for Cal to overcome in the end.

To touch quickly on Cal, this is a disappointing loss. I expected them to win given the fact that they came in on a three-game home winning streak against Stanford, not having lost a game in Berkeley to Stanford since February, 2021. To lose to Stanford at home really stings for them and even worse, they got outplayed from start to finish. If you just saw the timeline of the game without knowing the location, one would think this took place at Stanford. Stanford moved the ball much better with 19 assists and seven turnovers while Cal in contrast had just five assists and seven turnovers. There’s really no good way to spin this game for Cal. It was basically just Andrej Stojakovic out there playing hero ball against his former team.

As for Stanford, this is a nice win. They get their first win in Berkeley since 2021 and have now defeated Cal three straight times. That has to feel good. This game also should put to rest the arguments that Cal head coach Mark Madsen should be the one coaching Stanford. Stanford head coach Kyle Smith simply out-coached Madsen in this game and had his guys playing better on both ends of the floor. Raynaud and Blakes were both fantastic and then others stepped up and did their jobs. That assist-to-turnover ratio says it all.

Up next for Stanford is a home game against Merrimack on Tuesday, December 17th. That will tipoff at 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.

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