On Monday night, Stanford men’s basketball defeated the San Jose State Spartans 76-62 on The Farm. Stanford freshman forward Harrison Ingram led the way for the Cardinal with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists while senior forward Jaiden Delaire finished with 19 points on 7-13 shooting from the field, 2-3 shooting from 3-point range, and 3-9 shooting from the foul line. San Jose State junior guard Omari Moore was the top performer for the Spartans with 21 points and 3 rebounds. Stanford improves to 2-1 overall while San Jose State falls to 1-1.
“Obviously a tale of two halves there,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “At halftime we talked a lot about a few adjustments, but at the end of the day just executing the game plan that we had beforehand. Guarding the basketball was certainly crucial. Moore is a heck of a player. First half really got in the paint and created a ton of havoc for us as a scorer. We were certainly focused on their 3-point shooting. They do shoot; 14 threes in their first game. So we wanted to make sure that that was an emphasis on our part.
“But the second half defense really picked up. I thought we had great energy. Some grit, some toughness, and executed the game plan well. On the offensive end again, first half, I thought we got some good looks. It just, at the end of the day, I think we missed nine or ten free throws just in the first half and that makes it challenging because if you make those, I think it’s a different look at halftime. But when we get to the line and don’t convert, that’s challenging. But, the offense was probably more efficient than what the stats said.
“And then the second half, certainly did a great job getting the ball into the paint and dominating the paint. Especially on the offensive end. So, San Jose State, well coached. It’s the look of college basketball right now where multiple high major transfers, some guys returning, and then a well-coached team. And so, I think they’re going to do some nice things this year.”
With 13:13 to go in the first half, the game was tied 10-10. Harrison Ingram was leading the way for Stanford with 6 points on 3-5 shooting from the field. Stanford was shooting 5-10 (50.0%) from the field while San Jose State was shooting 4-7 from the field and 2-3 from 3-point range.
San Jose State would lead 16-12 with 10:47 to go in the half. Spartans forward Tibet Gorener was up to 7 points and 2 rebounds on 3-3 shooting from the field. Stanford needed someone other than Ingram to get rolling as he had half of their points.
Stanford would retake the lead to go up 19-18 with 7:39 to go in the half. Delaire was starting to heat up for the Cardinal with 8 points on 3-3 shooting from the field. He nailed a triple, got a nice put back, a reverse jam, and also a free throw.
San Jose State responded nicely to go up 27-21 with 3:49 to go in the half. The Spartans were on a 9-0 run over the last 2:31. Goerner was up to 10 points on 4-4 shooting from the field. 0 points for the Cardinal in the last 3:51.
San Jose State would lead 31-25 with 2:23 to go in the half. Stanford was shooting just 9-26 (34.6%) from the field. San Jose State was shooting 12-22 (54.5%).
At halftime, San Jose State led 38-29. Omari Moore was up to 12 points for the Spartans on 5-7 shooting from the field while Harrison Ingram was pacing the Cardinal with 12 points and 4 rebounds.
After a disappointing first half, Stanford woke up to start the second half and brought a lot more energy and focus on both ends of the floor. They started being more active in passing lanes on defense and on offense, they made a real effort to work the ball inside. As a result, it was a 47-43 lead for San Jose State with 14:44 to go. Stanford was up to 4 assists in the second half alone, which was more than their first half total. Maxime Raynaud was getting rolling inside was well as he was up to 9 points.
Stanford went up 53-49 with 11:06 to go. They were on a 10-0 run over the last 2:48. Ingram was up to 17 points and 7 rebounds while Delaire had 15 points. Stanford’s better ball movement and energy continued. Stanford would then go up 56-51 after a three-point play from Brandon Angel with 9:57 to go. The Cardinal were starting to pull away.
“I like having him on my team,” Haase quipped when asked about Ingram’s performance. “Has a great feel for the game. Very very smart. Knows the game so well. His questions or comments are always just on point. And then obviously the thing that I’ve said about him is he’s physically ready as we see to play at this level. And the other thing is he makes other players better and that’s a really strong statement because obviously he can score the basketball and dominate a game that way. But when he’s in the game and the ball’s in his hands, he has the ability to make others better and I just love that.”
With 7:11 to go, Stanford would lead 62-55 as their lead continued to expand. Ingram and Delaire each had 17 points. Stanford was up to 9 assists in the second half, continuing to do a great job of working the ball inside. It was a night and day difference from the first half.
“We’re going to need him to be a marquee type player for us,” Haase said of Delaire. “He scored a variety of ways. Scored around the basket. I still think he’s going to become more and more efficient as the year goes on. Defensively, can really guard with his length and what we’re going to ask from him is just the energy and passion on the defensive end. I was pleased with what he did. Obviously the point total is a big deal for us and hit some crucial shots and I thought he responded well. He didn’t start the game, didn’t start the second half, but still performed at a very high level.”
Stanford would lead 66-57 with 3:43 to go. The Spartans were running out of gas. After a really sketchy first half, the Cardinal did a really impressive job of turning this game around.
“The message remained the same and always has been: Be surgical on the offensive end and make sure we’re getting to our spots and being strong and being physical,” Delaire said. “We took it a little bit personal at halftime. We had to look at ourselves in the mirror and try to figure out what type of team we really wanted to be and yeah, we came out in the second half and we tried to be a bit more physical, a bit more surgical on the offensive end and it paid us well.”
In the end, Stanford walked out with a 76-62 win. After getting down 38-29 at halftime, the Cardinal responded really well in the second half, outscoring the Spartans 47-24. The offense really picked up as did the defense. The real difference offensively was getting into the paint. Stanford outscored San Jose State 52-28 in the paint. Once Stanford started working it inside, it was game over.
“Definitely,” Ingram said when asked if getting the ball into the paint was key point of emphasis. “Because I mean we have me, JD, Spencer, at the same time. That’s a BIG three. I mean, most people play a 6’3” shooting guard in there, sometimes 6’3”, 6’5” shooting guard. So they gotta guard me, JD, or Spencer. So we just run a bunch of plays and try to get us post ups in the paint, knowing they can’t stop us down there.”
Towards the end of the game, with 2:13 to go, Jaiden Delaire picked up a technical foul following a nice bucket inside. Delaire addressed that play after the game saying he said something stupid and that he’ll learn from it going forward.
“I just say, sometimes I black out on the court,” Delaire said about the technical foul. “I might have said something I shouldn’t have and I’m going to learn from that and do better next time. But, it was a physical strong play and I was pretty amped up after. But that’s all. I probably just said something to a player I shouldn’t have.”
“No, that was not forgivable,” Haase said with a laugh when asked about Delaire’s technical foul. “There may be a tech out there that is forgivable, but that was not it.”
Stanford also rolled out a new starting lineup with Maxime Raynaud and Sam Beskind starting. Jerod Haase said it was about matchups and he felt Beskind would bring a good amount of energy to start the game.
“Yeah, Maxime and Sam both starting the first time,” Haase said. “Maxime’s performance last game I thought was really good. Sam provides so much energy. I wanted to be able to put him on Moore at the start of the game. I thought that would be a good matchup for us. Sam is a veteran player for us, has been around a long time, he works his tail off, has the respect of everybody and I really wanted to start the game with energy and I thought he would help provide that for us and he did a great job. It’s unbelievable how over the time he’s been here how few minutes he’s played and what a big impact he’s had on our program. Obviously I have a great deal of trust in him. It wasn’t as much anything else other than he had earned it in practice and I wanted to put him in there.”
As a whole, I think there are more positives than negatives to take from this game if you are Stanford. They showed what they are capable of doing when they follow the game plan and everyone is in sync. Harrison Ingram took over and aside from his poor foul shooting, Jaiden Delaire had a nice outing. This was certainly a nice way to bounce back following Friday’s loss at Santa Clara.
“I mean we went to Santa Clara, that’s a school right down the street,” Ingram said. “Rivals, we all know each other. Everybody knows each other and to get beat like that, just didn’t sit well with us. Coaches talking about, I mean our main goal is to go to madness, go to March madness, right? And go dancing in the tournament and to do that, we need to bounce back to win.”
“Yeah, we’re definitely a little ticked off and that carried over to today’s game for sure,” Delaire added. “And then with the first half that we had at halftime, we were even more ticked off, so that fueled our fire in the second half.”
Up next for Stanford will be a home game on Wednesday against Valparaiso. That game will tipoff at 5:30 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks and Cardinal Sports Network radio.
Note: Redshirt junior center Keenan Fitzmorris was out and had a boot on his right foot. Jerod Haase said after the game that he doesn’t have an update on him at the moment but hopes to have more information after Wednesday’s game.
