On Thursday, Stanford men’s basketball hung on to defeat Dartmouth 89-78 in overtime. Stanford senior forward Jaiden Delaire led the way for the Cardinal with 22 points and 6 rebounds while sophomore forward Brandon Angel had a career-high 18 points to go along with 4 rebounds. Senior guard Taurus Samuels (22 points & 6 rebounds) and grad student guard Brendan Barry (20 points & 6 rebounds) were the top scorers for Dartmouth. Stanford improves to 6-3 overall (1-1 Pac-12) while Dartmouth falls to 3-6.

“Really impressed with Dartmouth, their coaching staff, their players,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “They’ve been in just about every game this year. They won at Georgetown. The last three games they’ve had some heartbreakers and have a lot of respect for their program, their resiliency, they did a nice nice job. I mean, I’m certainly proud of what we did as well. We’ll talk about that.

“We had a lot of adversity today, didn’t play our best, but we did play our best when it was needed and I thought we got better throughout the game. I thought the guys responded well, I thought the staff gave some really good suggestions, and I thought we developed a plan as we went because the first plan needed some adjustments.”

Dartmouth got out to a 9-8 lead with 15:38 to go in the first half. Taurus Samuels was up to 5 points for Dartmouth, making an impact early. As for Stanford, James Keefe was off to a nice start with 4 points and 2 rebounds. He was doing work inside.

Stanford would lead 18-16 with 11:24 to go in the half. Keefe continued to be effective inside for the Cardinal as he was now up to 6 points and 4 rebounds. Stanford was out-rebounding Dartmouth 10-5.

“I just try to come out and be ready every game and crash as hard as I can,” Keefe said. “Kinda got going early and I think in the first half, he hit me on two pick and rolls. The way they were guarding the ball screen allowed me to be open a bunch. So yeah, that’s kinda how it went from there.”

Things would continue to go Dartmouth’s way as the Big Green would lead 30-27 with 6:46 to go in the half. Ryan Cornish was up to 8 points after a 3-pointer plus the foul. He would go for a 4-point play after the break. Dartmouth was battling tough. Harrison Ingram was finally on the board for Stanford after a dunk. Following the break, Cornish would make the free throw, making it a 31-27 lead for Dartmouth.

Dartmouth would expand their lead to go up 39-31 with 3:19 to go in the half. Brendan Barry (14 points) and Ryan Cornish (11 points) were both heating up. Stanford needed to find a way to slow those guys down.

At halftime, Dartmouth would lead 44-33 as Barry’s 14 points led the way for the Big Green. James Keefe’s 10 points and 4 rebounds was leading the Cardinal, who were in a bit of trouble. Stanford needed to wake up in the second half.

Stanford got off to a 10-4 start in the second half. Dartmouth was now up 48-43 with 15:50 to go. Jaiden Delaire was starting to come alive for Stanford with 14 points and 4 rebounds while Michael O’Connell had a nice triple.

Dartmouth would respond a bit to lead 56-47 with 11:55 to go. Brendan Barry was leading all scorers with 17 points while Ryan Cornish had 16 points. Jaiden Delaire (16 points) and James Keefe (12 points) needed more help.

“Yeah, James was fantastic,” Haase said of Keefe. “It’s pretty impressive stat line for a big to be five of eight from the field, nine rebounds, four assists, zero turnovers. He’s really really good as a communicator on defense. He’s in a lot of ways the anchor of the defense calling out ball screens and being a vocal leader. His communication and his feet and his effort and his rebounding were really good.”

With 7:58 to go, Dartmouth would lead 58-52. Stanford was starting to get back in the game. They were attacking the rim and had gotten into the double bonus early. They just needed to make their free throws. Jaiden Delaire was now up to 18 points for Stanford.

“The goal was no fouls and no threes,” Haase said of the key to the comeback. “Trying to make them shoot contested twos. That was the goal the entire game and we struggled. But, I thought our energy picked up, we got into them a little bit more, the pressure picked up, and so the threes were not as many clean looks. They made and missed a couple late, but the percentages went down as the game went on.

“Again our pressure I think ran them off the line some and then we were able to play without fouling to a certain extent and then trying to limit the fouls and limit the threes…We were into the bonus fairly early. We had the size advantage, we have guys who can score in the post in a lot of different ways, they started to double, did a nice job with that, I thought we had a really good plan, I didn’t think we executed that very well at times. But yes, the answer is we wanted to go inside, we wanted to attack inside, and then if it came out that’s fine, but we wanted to make sure we were aggressive.”

Stanford would inch even closer as Dartmouth led 60-56 with 7:26 to go. Stanford’s 34-26 edge on the boards and their focus on dominating the paint was starting to wear down the Big Green.

Stanford would retake the lead to go up 63-62 with 4:32 to go following a nice sequence involving a triple from Noah Taitz, a stop inside aided by James Keefe, and a pretty finish inside from Harrison Ingram. Now it was about finishing strong. The Cardinal had the momentum.

Dartmouth would lead 68-65 with 2:52 to go after a clutch triple from Samuels. Barry with a clutch one as well. The Big Green were not going away. Jaiden Delaire would respond for Stanford to make it a 68-67 game with 2:24 to go. The game was going down to the wire.

“They run great sets and they’re quick, they shoot the heck out of the ball, but they run great sets and they’re quick,” Keefe said of Dartmouth. “They pass and cut super well and so, you’re chasing off stagger screens one way, but you’re also worried about the back door. It’s not easy to guard, they’re very disciplined. So, all credit to them. They put up 78 points and I think most of that was in regulation, not in overtime.”

“And their conditioning,” Ingram chimed in. “I mean, they were running the whole game. Barry was running around screens, back door, playing defense the entire game. I think really their conditioning is really what kinda hard for us to contain with.”

Dartmouth would then go on a 6-0 run over 57 seconds to lead 74-67 with 1:13 to go. Stanford looked to be dead in the water. But then, Harrison Ingram would go on a 5-0 run all by himself. Getting a nice bucket inside and a corner 3-pointer following a steal.

“I would say just the trust of Coach Haase and the coaching staff and the teammates to have in me to let me keep shooting and keep driving and keep playing my game,” Ingram said of the key to his late game heroics. “And as a freshman to be able to play through mistakes I feel is a big reason why I came here. Them having the trust is the reason that I can come through in the end.

“Having Michael O’Connell pass me the ball in the corner for the three. And for him just to have the trust in me after I missed, I think I missed my first three threes or however many I missed. Missed the first three threes for him to have the trust in me to pass it to me in the corner and for my coaches to be yelling shoot it shoot it even though I missed my first three I think is just what happened.”

Stanford would then get a stop and get the ball across half court and call for time. With 8.3 seconds to go, Stanford had life down 74-72. Stanford would then get the ball to Harrison Ingram in the post, who would finish inside to force OT as just 0.7 seconds were left on the clock. After looking like they were deader than disco, Stanford now had new life as it was a 74-74 game with five fresh minutes to work with.

“Extremely impressed and I’ve talked about it a lot that he’s a winner,” Haase said of Ingram’s fortitude. “He’s tough, he knows the game, and he’s physically ready. Now having said that, there’s a lot of things he can improve upon. I watched film with him today before shootaround for a while. Will do it again probably tomorrow.

“Having said that, when the game was on the line we put the ball in his hands and he made a big time play. Last time, put the ball in Jaiden’s hands, he made a big time play. So we’re excited we have multiple options, but having said that, I have a lot of confidence in Harrison even when he struggled for most of the game."

Stanford would open overtime on a 7-0 run thanks to a bucket inside by Harrison Ingram, a 3-pointer from Noah Taitz that rattled home, and a transition slam by Brandon Angel. With 2:30 to go, Stanford was now up 81-74. Momentum was firmly in their direction now.

“Brandon was a big time shot in the arm,” Haase said of Angel. “He’s very skilled, he’s tough. I thought his energy on both ends of the floor was important and then finishing plays. We were able to go high low late in the game a couple different times. He did a nice job catching the basketball with two hands and finishing the plays. And defensively, I thought again provided great energy, but he was a huge spark for us.”

In the end, Stanford walked out with an 89-78 victory. Stanford got a lot of luck to win this game, but to their credit, they made the most of it. Harrison Ingram (13 points & 7 rebounds) was clutch in crunch time and in the closing moments, it was a slam dunk fest led by Brandon Angel. Not the prettiest of wins, but if you’re Stanford, you’ll certainly take it over what would have a been a really really bad loss. The Cardinal definitely dodged a bullet in this one.

Up next for Stanford is a trip to Las Vegas where they’ll face #17 Texas. That game will tipoff on Sunday at 12:00 PM PT on ABC.

Note: Stanford was without junior forward Spencer Jones, who Jerod Haase said is day-to-day. A team spokesman informed the media that it’s a lower leg injury.

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