Recap: Stanford MBB dominates Cal on The Farm
On Saturday, Stanford men’s basketball dominated Cal on The Farm by a final score of 75-46. Stanford sophomores Maxime Raynaud (15 points, 9 rebounds, & 4 steals) and Harrison Ingram (14 points, 4 rebounds, & 2 assists) led the way for the Cardinal while sophomore forward Sam Alajiki (13 points & 11 rebounds) was the top performer for the Golden Bears. Stanford improves to 9-12 overall and 3-7 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 3-18 overall and 2-8 in the Pac-12.
Video: Stanford MBB postgame press conference | Cal
“Our guys were well aware this was a big game for a lot of reasons,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “And we always take the approach of every game is a big game, the next game is where the focus is, but with the Final Four team being back here, throwback uniforms, obviously the rival, obviously how our first game with Cal went, there was a lot of motivation for us and I thought honestly in the first half, I wasn’t so sure that it backfired offensively because we, I thought we got some good looks and weren’t able to finish them until a little bit later in the half. But defensively, I thought the intensity, the intent, the execution of the game plan was there throughout and I thought the focus was really good.
“And so, I have a lot of respect for the Cal program. Coach Fox, the whole bit. They do it the right way and we got things rolling in the second half and obviously pleased with the result for us.”
The game was tight early on as it was tied 6-6 with 15:47 to go in the first half. Brandon Angel had 4 points inside for the Cardinal while Maxime Raynaud had a tip-in. Joel Brown and Kuany Kuany each had triples for the Bears.
With 10:40 to go in the half, Stanford led 12-11. Angel was leading the Cardinal with 7 points. Kuany was leading the Bears with 5 points. Stanford was shooting 5-13 from the field while Cal was shooting 4-15.
With 7:39 to go in the half, it was still a 12-11 game as both teams had gone colder than a mother-in-law’s kiss. Stanford had 0 points in the last 6:15 while Cal had 0 points in the last 5:48.
“Well it’s hard to be confident when you have that kind of a scoring drought,” Haase said. “But I will say, I thought in those kinds of situations you’re looking at and always, whether the ball is going in or not, the selection. Are there quality shots, are we getting to the paint, are the outside shots clean looks with the right guys, and for the most part, I’ll need to go look and confirm that with the film, but I thought we were getting quality looks. A lot of times in the first half and I told the team if we can continue to stick with the game plan, get the high quality looks, I was confident that we could get some of those to go down.”
Stanford would soon end their dry spell, taking a 23-13 lead with 3:29 to go in the half. The Cardinal were on an 11-0 run in the last 2:50. Raynaud was up to 8 points after a bucket plus the foul inside. After being tight early, Stanford was loosening up.
Cal would finally wake up a bit as it was a 28-20 lead for Stanford with 33.2 to go in the half. Stanford had the rock and called for time. Coming out of the timeout, Stanford was able to set up Isa Silva for a 3-pointer, making it a 31-20 halftime lead. Raynaud was up to 9 points and 8 rebounds while DeJuan Clayton was up to 6 points.
With 15:51 to go, Stanford was up 39-24. Raynaud continued to dominate inside with 12 points and 9 rebounds. He was eating Cal for lunch inside. Brandon Angel had 9 points. All things were going Stanford’s way.
Stanford would expand their lead 48-31 with 13:21 after Harrison Ingram had a monster dunk on Cal’s ND Okafor. He was up to 7 points while Max Murrell had 6 points after a nice triple. Stanford was starting to run away with the game.
“I can’t think of one,” Ingram said when asked if he’s had a more spectacular dunk in his career. “I’m just trying to, everyone’s saying I’m unathletic and I can’t jump and I’m trying to disprove that. But I mean, when that happened I blacked out, didn’t get back on defense, gave up a layup, but I’ve never done anything like that before.”
“Well I told the guys in the locker room, we’ll let them judge on Monday which dunk was best,” Haase said of Ingram’s dunk. “Whether it’s Isa’s or Harrison’s or Brandon Angel’s, but I said Harrison’s doesn’t count because he celebrated a little bit and didn’t get back in transition and they scored right away, so he will not win the best dunk of the game award. But, I did think he started to play inspired in the second half, I actually told him at halftime coming out, I actually wanna look here, he didn’t do what he was supposed to do, because I told him to get five rebounds in the second half.
“But I think the intent was find ways to make things go your way as opposed to just waiting for it to happen and I thought he was a little more aggressive offensively, but a great way to get yourself going is to get to the offensive boards. And certainly that play right there helped him get going.”
Stanford would lead 52-31 with 11:37 to go. Michael O’Connell had a nice layup inside. He was up to 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists. Stanford was outscoring Cal 21-11 in the second half up to this point.
With 7:15 to go, Stanford led 62-33. Since it was a 12-11 game, Stanford had outscored Cal 50-22. It was a really balanced attack by the Cardinal as Raynaud was the highest scorer with 12 points. The Cardinal were on a 14-2 run over the last 5:42, really blowing this game wide open. After a quiet first half, Ingram was now in a real groove.
“I mean, I had a slow start obviously,” Ingram admitted. “Zero points in the first half, one rebound, wasn’t really playing my game. I missed a few defensive assignments. Kinda backdoor screens, but staying aggressive still calling stuff for me and trusting in me and him [Raynaud] kinda keeping me locked in. I was kinda, in the locker room I was like dang, like bad first half, but we were up. And just trying to win. We were trying to kill them on our court. We don’t like Cal.”
“I think we let the game come to us,” Raynaud added. “I know in the first half, had like a couple baskets in a row and I’m not getting frustrated if I didn’t get the ball or not getting too excited if I get that many times. That’s why I told him to wait in the second half. Like, you’ll end up having big figures, don’t worry and he’s a great player. Like, I had no doubt in him getting double figures today. It’s a big game. He’s a big boy. It’s gonna be fun.”
Stanford continued to dominate Cal, leading 70-34 with 3:51 to go. Raynaud was up to 15 points and 9 rebounds while Ingram was up to 14 points and 4 rebounds. Ingram just had a pretty straightaway 3-pointer.
“As he’s getting consistent minutes, it’s a little bit, to build on the question you asked earlier, are guys gonna feel more cohesive and comfortable out there [with a tighter rotation], he knows he’s going to play a lot of minutes and doesn’t need to force things,” Haase said of Raynaud. “I told him afterwards, if he wants that tenth rebound, rebounding’s a great way to be selfish. We talk all the time about being selfless, but if you wanna go rebound, you can have as many as you want.
"You can be as selfish as you want and he’s proven he’s a darn good rebounder and I think he’s comfortable on the offensive and defensive boards and I think he’ll get more comfortable. I think offensively he’s still coming into his own in terms of knowing when to get a quick shot, quick up when he needs to balance and gather himself in more of a power move, and that’s going to come with time, but I think he’s making good progress.”
In the end, Stanford walked out with a 75-46 victory. A thunderous slam dunk by Isa Silva served as the exclamation point. Walk-on Roy Yuan had a 3-pointer rattle out that would have brought the house down, but it wasn’t to be. And just to give him a little love despite his team losing, Cal guard Marsalis Roberson had a very nice transition dunk of his own in the closing minutes.
“This year and last year, they whooped us at their place,” Ingram said of getting revenge. “I mean we came out this time went to hit first and just kinda stay on our streak of winning and keep going up…See before, in the warmups he’s always doing 360 dunks, like telling me to throw him an oop, one hand dunks, I’m like do it in a game today. I told him [Silva] do it in a game and we saw it out there. It was ridiculous! It’s a great all-around game, like team effort, defense, what they shot, 30.4 from the field, I mean I feel like that was a great defensive effort as a team.”
“Absolutely, he said it all,” Raynaud added. “We needed that win. Lot of people came today, four wins in a row, four home wins in a row, nothing else to say.”
For Cal, this loss really stings. They came in hoping to get a sweep of their Bay Area rival and ended up losing by even more points than their victory over Stanford earlier in the month. To say the least, this is not how they wanted this night to go.
“Disappointing loss obviously,” Cal head coach Mark Fox said after the game. “In the previous two games, we dominated with our offense. In game one of the year, last year, we dominated with our defense and tonight we didn’t play well at either of those ends and give Stanford credit for playing with a more physical edge to them tonight and I thought our defensive frustrations carried over to the offensive end and give them credit, they made a bunch of baskets we couldn’t string together any stops and you can’t win that way on the road.”
Touching more on their defense, Fox felt like forcing misses and rebounding is where they need to improve. To his credit, he was able to give a very specific answer to the question of what needs to change for his team on that end.
“Force misses and then rebound it,” Fox said of what he wants to see differently from his team on defense. “We were minus twelve at the half on the glass. Force misses and then go rebound. That would be a good place to start.”
As for Stanford, this was a much-needed win. It was a rivalry game and they were out for revenge after getting humiliated by Cal in Berkeley earlier in the month. Ingram and Raynaud both had excellent performances and then everyone else chipped in and did their part. Stanford played much better defense than they did in Berkeley and then they also benefited from Cal just not playing well. Cal was without their leading scorer Devin Askew, but even with him out, they have to feel like they’re capable of putting up more than 46 points.
On top of it being a rivalry game, Stanford was also honoring the 1998 Final Four team by wearing throwback jerseys and giving out commemorative shirts to fans. To win with some of those guys in attendance meant a lot to them. They did not want to let those guys down on this special night.
“It was an important one for me personally just how the last game went, understanding the rivalry, having the Final Four team back and just focusing on the next game as well,” Haase said of how important it was to honor that team. “But there’s a lot of reasons from a personal standpoint. It did feel good and corny and cliché and that kind of thing, but I’m thrilled for our guys and just the work, the commitment they’ve had consistently, it feels really good as a coach to see them have a little bit of success.”
“So, personally, like we’ve seen them a little bit,” Raynaud added. “Some of them came to shootaround today. But outside of that, the gal who is working with the Stanford dining housing and who helps organize all this thing, she’s been here for the past like twenty, thirty years almost. And I love to talk to her after games and she always mentions how, I was talking about culture before, how these guys were just like a group of friends, extremely hard workers, but that the same time they really like embraced the idea of working hard and just giving everything towards one goal, and even though I don’t necessarily know them personally, their spirit like remains here and every time you talk to someone who’s been here for multiple years, they always bring that up. Like how these guys were like always in the gym, always the nicest guys off the court, and at the end of the day, they were the ones that made that run in 1998.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at Utah on Thursday, February 2nd. That game will tip-off at 5:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
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