On Friday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Cal State Fullerton at home by a final score of 80-53. Stanford junior point guard Benny Gealer led the way for the Cardinal with a career-high 20 points on 7-8 shooting from the field and 6-7 shooting from 3-point range while graduate student guard Jaylen Blakes had a career-high 18 points and five assists. Cal State Fullerton senior forward John Mikey Square was the top performer for the Titans with 13 points. Stanford improves to 2-0 overall while Cal State Fullerton falls to 0-2.
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference: Cal State Fullerton
BOX SCORE: Cal State Fullerton at Stanford-Friday, November 8th
“Yeah, really pleased with the way our guys competed,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “Obviously early on, we couldn’t score. We turned it over. Credit to Cal State Fullerton, just being, saw their game against Grand Canyon. They’re really competitive with them, a really good team on the road. Well coached with Coach Taylor and it would have been easy to kind of give into it a little bit and we didn’t break. And in fact we finally absorbed their punch then we punch back and kind of were relentless defensively I felt the whole game, holding a team to two assists is just good. Period.”
Stanford rolled with a starting lineup of Benny Gealer, Jaylen Blakes, Oziyah Sellers, Aidan Cammann, and Maxime Raynaud. Same as the first game. Stanford led 9-8 with 15:48 to go in the first half as Raynaud was leading the way with six points inside. As for Fullerton, guard Donovan Oday was up to six points on 2-2 shooting from 3-point range.
Fullerton would take the lead 13-9 with 11:18 to go in the half. The Titans were on an 8-0 run over the last 4:43. The Cardinal needed to get things going back in their favor.
With 7:37 to go in the half, Fullerton was up 19-10 as the Titans were now on a 14-1 run over the last 8:24. Stanford’s offense needed to wake up.
Over the next four to five minutes, Stanford would finally wake up as Fullerton’s lead shrunk to just two points as it was a 23-21 lead for the Titans with 2:46 to go in the half. Stanford was on a 6-0 run over the last 1:32 as they were bringing really good defensive intensity. Raynaud was leading the way for the Cardinal with seven points and seven rebounds.
“Absolutely, I mean I’d say that’s part of our identity,” Smith said of their defense. “When we get tired, we gotta defend, we gotta create an identity. It’s a different way for some of the returners to play. I mean, I would have said, and it’s okay, there’s different ways to skin a cat, but I think this is more of a feel good, see the ball go in, and you could see when we make some shots, you can really separate. But we’re like no, we’re gonna be stingy. Three of their baskets I felt like we guarded, like two are late clock threes and one was a bank three. And they were three for three from three, so I felt like you couldn’t ask more defense other than we’re fouling too much.
“But we couldn’t score and you know, we had to, you could see doubt crept in. We didn’t know where to turn, where to look, and coaching and staff included and sometimes players got to step up. I felt like Blakes did and Chisom and they said you know what, I just got to get the thing to the basket, make something happen, and kind of, that’s good for us.”
At halftime, Stanford led 30-27. Raynaud was up to 10 points and eight rebounds after nailing a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. The Cardinal finally started to wake up at the end of the half.
Stanford got off to a strong start in the second half as they led 41-37 with 15:18 to go. After not scoring at all in the first half and only attempting one shot, Benny Gealer was now up to eight points for Stanford on 2-3 shooting from 3-point range. He was heating up.
With 13:26 to go, Stanford led 47-38 after threes from Ryan Agarwal and Benny Gealer. Gealer was up to 11 points on 3-4 shooting from 3-point range. He continued to be on fire.
“I think he’s awesome,” Smith said of Agarwal. “I think he, all our guys are, love him. It’s different role. I looked at like, I think twenty minutes last game was like the most minutes or second most minutes in his career. And they had twenty eight minutes a game and he’s just understanding what it takes to play extended minutes. And that’s when you’re talking about defend, rebound, take care of the ball.
“In practice he’s been our second best rebounder. Obviously he’s a threat to make threes, he can score, and I think that’s the last piece that’s going to keep coming. And he’s automatic floor space, he’s a good passer, there’s a lot of things that are gonna start showing up and really felt like that three he hit in front our bench kind of kind of I don’t remember where it took five to eight or something, but it just felt like that was all right. He needed to see one go in and then he did, he had another one and he’s gonna be really good.”
Stanford’s lead continued to grow as they were up 54-38 with 11:58 to go. Benny Gealer and Jaylen Blakes now had 14 points each. The Cardinal were starting to pull away.
The Cardinal would continue to expand their lead 64-45 with 6:31 to go. Gealer continued to do his thing with 17 points while Blakes was up to 16 points. At this point, Stanford had all the momentum.
“Hoop felt a little bigger at times,” Gealer said with a smile. “Just being aggressive. Teammates like JB were finding me for open shots and I know I put in the work, so just shooting it. Letting it go and yeah, they were going in, which is good…I just more think to myself if I’m open and I get my feet under me, just let it go. And then obviously, like yeah, once you hit one of them, you’re just in that flow state.”
Stanford would continue to pour it on like gasoline on a fire as they were up 73-47 with 3:42 to go. Gealer was up to 20 points as he didn’t miss a single shot in the second half, shooting 7-7 from the field and 6-6 from 3-point range.
“He’s a legitimate high major point guard and you know, he’s been the little engine that could before and I said that’s a transition, he deserves it,” Smith said of Gealer. “He works hard. He’s like, he’s the best shooter I’ve ever coached and he showed it tonight and he’s tough. And so he just gotta keep coming and there’ll be dips, ebbs and flows, and people get on the scout and people try to wipe them out, instead you know sneak them in the game and surprise somebody. No, you’re out there as a starter. That’s a real job and he’s doing great.”
In the end, Stanford would win 80-53. After a rocky start, Stanford came together and got the job done decisively. Obviously Benny Gealer stole the show, but Jaylen Blakes was fantastic with his defense and attacking of the basket, Maxime Raynaud came to play with his 14 points and 14 rebounds, and everyone else did what was asked of them.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s something that coach always preaches is stay consistent, stay steady,” Blakes said. “And you know, the more together team usually wins and I think when the going gets tough and when you face adversity, a lot of times people tend to become individuals, but I think for us we became a team and I think we fed off each other’s energy. Not just the people on the court, but the people on the bench provided great energy that ultimately fueled a great comeback towards the end of the half and obviously it got this guy to my left [Gealer] going in the second half, but it was just a group effort.”
For Stanford, probably the most impressive thing I’ve seen from them through two games is their defense. Especially on the perimeter. They are very active in passing lanes and bringing a good amount of disruption. The defense was a weak point last year and so to see a team that is bringing more energy on that side is certainly a breath of fresh air.
“I think a big message was just don’t beat ourselves,” Gealer said. “Our principles are defend, rebound, take care of the ball. Do those things. And then the other stuff will find its way.”
“Yeah, you know, something else Benny kinda highlighted was not be outcome oriented,” Blakes added. “Don’t be so focused on the outcome, but stay true to the process. And I think that’s something that we did and it was just stay true to who we are as ourselves. Shots will eventually fall, because we put the work in and we got good shots, but don’t be so outcome oriented that that when something doesn’t go your way that you end up getting flustered, but you stay true to who you are.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Northern Arizona on Tuesday, November 12th. Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
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