On Sunday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Washington 81-69 to win their Senior Day game at Maples Pavilion. Stanford senior forward Spencer Jones led the way for the Cardinal with 21 points and 5 rebounds while sophomore center Maxime Raynaud (15 points & 6 rebounds), junior forward Brandon Angel (14 points, 7 rebounds, & 4 assists), sophomore forward Harrison Ingram (11 points, 6 rebounds, & 6 assists), and graduate student guard Michael Jones (10 points) also scored in double figures. Washington graduate student guard Jamal Bey (21 points & 8 rebounds) and senior forward Keion Brooks, Jr. (17 points) were the top performers for the Huskies.
BOX SCORE: Washington at Stanford
Video: Stanford Men’s Basketball Washington Postgame Press Conference
“It’s good to win our last home game in Maples,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “I chuckle a little bit about senior night nowadays because I don’t even know what that means. We honor some of the guys, don’t honor some of the guys, don’t know who’s coming back next year or who’s gonna leave and it’s just a different, I joked with the team at shootaround today, I said when I played, senior night means you get out of here. Now it’s like we’d love the guys to come back and, but everybody’ll have their path as time goes on. But I was excited to win for the seniors and honor them properly.
“The game itself again is a step in the right direction. Every team, there’s never a consistent line, but I do feel throughout the year our team has trended north and we’ve had again, blips in the radar as that kind of thing, but we continue to get better. I thought today was a step forward. Offensively I thought we were efficient. It was fantastic to have 25 assists on I believe it was 29 field goals and then defensively had some, I thought we had some breakdowns defensively, put them on the free throw line a little bit too much in the second half. But enough to get it done obviously.”
Stanford got off to a strong start, leading 8-0 with 17:45 to go in the first half as Harrison Ingram was up to 5 points while Spencer Jones already had a 3-pointer. The Cardinal clearly were feeding off the energy of Senior Day.
With 10:42 to go in the half, Stanford led 16-10. Spencer Jones was in a nice flow for the Cardinal with 8 points. Washington was having a tough time slowing him down.
Stanford would then lead 21-11 with 7:59 to go in the half. Stanford was shooting 7-18 from the field and 5-11 from 3-point range while Washington was shooting 5-16 from the field and 0-4 from deep. The Cardinal were really making it rain from the perimeter.
Stanford would continue to stay in front, but Washington was able to cut into their lead a bit as it was a 27-20 game with 3:57 to go until halftime. Bey was up to 7 points and 4 rebounds for the Huskies. Stanford was doing a good job on the glass, outrebounding Washington 15-12. Spencer Jones was up to 10 points for the Cardinal after knocking down a pair of free throws.
Stanford would then expand their lead 35-24 with 1:29 to go in the half. Spencer Jones was up to 13 points after getting the hoop plus the foul. He was really coming alive for the Cardinal.
“Spencer knows what I think, I want him to have as much initiative as he can possibly have,” Haase said. “I don’t know if in four years if I’ve ever told him that was a bad shot. And I want him to have confidence and feel like he has the green light because generally speaking, when he gets a lot of shots up, we tend to do well. And so, I want the team to look for him and I want him to be aggressive and that happened. So, I absolutely love coaching him and not only today, but for those four years.
“Spencer, I describe him, you know there’s people that are described as low maintenance, Spencer is no maintenance. I mean, he’s the one that just handles his business, he goes hard in every drill, it’s just, he handles his business like a professional. He just is so on top of it with everything. So, he’s going to be extremely successful in life just because of those habits and his overall talent and intelligence.”
At halftime, it was a 38-26 lead for Stanford. Spencer Jones now had 16 points and 4 rebounds on 5-8 shooting from the field, 3-6 shooting from 3-point range, and 3-3 shooting from the foul line. Brooks was up to 10 points for the Huskies. Overall, it was a really strong half for the Cardinal.
With 15:48 to go, it was a 44-37 lead for Stanford as the Huskies were once again climbing back into the game. They were outscoring the Cardinal 11-6 in the second half so far. Bey was up to 14 points, doing his part to keep the Huskies alive.
Spencer Jones then responded for the Cardinal with a huge 3-pointer, giving him 19 points. With 13:22 to go, it was now a 55-41 lead for Stanford. Jones was balling out on Senior Day.
With 11:39 to go, Stanford led 57-41. Angel was up to 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists for the Cardinal, who were on a 13-2 run over the last 3:45. Stanford was starting to put the Huskies away.
Stanford continued to stay in front with command, leading 62-48 with 7:56 to go. The Huskies had gone colder than a Siberian winter as they had made 1 of their last 10 field goals. Time was running out for them to make a serious push.
With 5:06 to go, it was now clear how this game was going as Stanford led 72-54. Michael O’Connell was yet to score, but he had 11 assists. He was doing a great job of facilitating and getting his teammates involved. Ingram was also doing a nice job of facilitating as he found Raynaud inside for a slam.
“I mean, guys were making shots,” O’Connell said of his assists. “I think I was trying to get downhill and push the pace a little bit and get it to our shooters and we have phenomenal shooters on the team. I mean, our big men can shoot, guards can shoot, so it’s like, it’s easy as my job to get the ball to them. And they were knocking down shots today and I think that’s how we should be playing all year. I mean, I should be pushing the pace, getting guys good looks, and we should be knocking shots down. I think we struggled with that throughout the year, which kinda didn’t help with end of the game situations and winning games. But today we knocked it down and hopefully we can carry that to the next few games.”
Stanford would then lead 74-59 with 3:49 to go. Raynaud was up to 15 points all of which were scored in the second half. He was yet to miss a field goal in the half as he was 7-7 from the field.
In the end, Stanford would win 81-69. They were able to get seniors Neal Begovich, Roy Yuan, and Josue Gil-Silva into the game. Yuan had a big crowd out to see him, so they were pumped up to see him and then Begovich actually started, so it was his second stint of action in the game. O’Connell also was able to tack on one more assist while also knocking down a pair of free throws. That gave him 2 points and 12 assists, tied for 7th most in program history for most assists in a single game.
“I told him if he passed it to Roy the last possession of the game he would have had thirteen,” Haase said of O’Connell with a chuckle. “But, I thought he managed the game well. Obviously, a couple mistakes here or there, but I think the team feels comfortable with the ball in his hands. There’s kind of a calming presence and it’s yeah, a fantastic number.”
“I mean, that’s always kinda the game plan for the guards is to get downhill and create,” O’Connell added. “And today, I mean they were giving me opportunities, there were open passing lanes to get to the guys. Guys were ready to shoot and they were just knocking them down. Makes it easier for me.”
For Washington, this loss is a bummer in that they were hoping to get a road sweep after taking care of business at Cal. Stanford is a tricky team because they’ve been so hot and cold this year. They can’t let this loss bother them too much. They just gotta get back to work and finish the regular season strong with a win over Washington State on Thursday to finish off their regular season.
“Turnovers in transition,” Spencer Jones said of what the biggest difference was between their first meeting in Seattle and the second meeting at Maples. “I mean, turnovers we kept shooting ourselves in the foot with just sloppy plays and letting the pressure get to us and then that led to easy fastbreak points and they had like twenty, twenty-plus transition points in the first game. This game, I mean, I’d be surprised if they had any more than like six or eight. That was a big difference.”
As for Stanford, this is a really nice win. It’s been a frustrating season that hasn’t gone the way they wanted, but to win on Senior Day feels good. They’re trying to build as much positive momentum as possible for the Pac-12 tournament and getting this win definitely helps them accomplish that goal. It was an all-around team win with a lot of different guys stepping up. On top of that, they shot 12-24 (50%) from 3-point range. That made Jerod Haase smile when he was asked about it after the game.
“You know the season, early on, and this is the first third of the year, were a little bit in survival mode,” Haase said. “Teams were pressuring the heck out of us, we were back on our heels, and it just got to the point of hey, just shoot the ball. Because that’s better than a turnover.
“And then the next third of the year, we continued to massage the game plan, try and find ways to put our guys in positions where they can be more comfortable, maybe pressure doesn’t bother us. We worked on it more and more and that middle third of the season, I think we grew and gotten more comfortable kinda figure out a game plan and got more shots and limited turnovers.
“Now it’s I think we’re to the point in the last third of the season here, there’s real purpose to each play we’re running. There’s an understanding of the kind of guys’ roles, there’s an understanding of, it’s not just passing the ball, but hey, let’s hit him in the right target. And it’s been an evolution of the year and again, if we judge the season by the record, it’s underwhelming, but when you look at it in terms of progress, there’s certainly some things I’m proud of and we’ve made progress.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at Oregon State on Thursday. That will tip-off at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
Note: Spencer Jones went through the Senior Day pageantry, but he is open to coming back next season, so we’ll just have to see what he does. James Keefe and Michael Jones did not go through the pageantry because they are both planning on being back for next season.
Keefe also did not play in the game as he was out with a lower body injury. He is considered day-to-day heading into the Oregon road trip.
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