On Monday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Denver at home by a final score of 85-62. Stanford shooting guard Oziyah Sellers led the way for the Cardinal with 24 points and seven rebounds while center Maxime Raynaud had 16 points, 12 rebounds, and one block. Denver shooting guard Sebastian Akins was the leading scorer for the Pioneers with 15 points. Stanford improves to 1-0 on the season while Denver falls to 0-1.
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference: Denver
BOX SCORE: Denver at Stanford-Monday, November 4th
“Yeah, just really pleased for our first home game and I thought we played well in a lot of stretches,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “I thought Denver played really hard. They came out, in the beginning there it was back and forth and we had a little stretch there, Anthony Batson came off the bench, got our defense going a little bit, and then we had towards the end of that first half, we kind of broke it open a little bit and then they kept competing and we turned the ball over a little bit too much, but they put some pressure on us here, but we were able to kind of settle down and play really well, I thought.”
Stanford rolled with a starting five of Jaylen Blakes, Oziyah Sellers, Maxime Raynaud, Benny Gealer, and Aidan Cammann. Blakes, Sellers, and Gealer in the backcourt and Raynaud and Cammann in the front court.
Stanford got off to an early 12-9 lead with 14:36 to go in the first half. Gealer was off to a hot start for Stanford with six points on 2-3 shooting from 3-point range. Raynaud already had the highlight play of the game with a filthy windmill dunk.
“Yeah, that was crazy,” Sellers said of Raynaud’s dunk.
“Well the funny thing is that I had the one at practice like two weeks ago and I missed it,” Raynaud said. “Coach got mad at us, so I don’t know, it was kind of my little get back at him. But yeah, I’m glad that our Instagram guys can post that.”
With 11:53 to go in the half, it was a 14-13 lead for Stanford. The Cardinal were shooting 38% from the field while the Pioneers were shooting 63%. The Cardinal needed to tighten up their defense and get some shots to fall.
Stanford would lead 23-20 with 6:42 to go in the half. Gealer’s nine points on 3-4 shooting from 3-point range was leading the way for the Cardinal. Stanford was very active on defense with eight steals while freshman wing Anthony Batson, Jr. had three steals of his own. They were clearly ratcheting things up on that end.
Stanford would lead 32-20 with 3:30 to go in the half. Raynaud was getting going with nine points, six rebounds, and one block. Stanford was on a 15-2 run. Denver had five turnovers in the last 5:43 and hadn’t scored in 4:03.
At halftime, Stanford led 38-22. Benny Gealer (12 points on 4-5 3PT) and Maxime Raynaud (9 points & 8 rebounds) were leading the way for the Cardinal. A big difference was Stanford having only four turnovers to Denver’s 12 turnovers along with Gealer's stellar shooting from beyond the arc.
“Benny’s been, he’s been like that in every live action,” Smith said of Gealer’s shooting. “I don’t want to take it for granted, he’s been great there and him and our system with our hustle stats and everything, him and Blakes have been really, it measures how hard you compete every possession, those two have been nails and it kind of factors in everything and making some, we weren’t, February you’ll probably see offensively things playing together, but Benny being able to settle a little bit, making some long shots and stuff like that and he does that. So, I told him he has a green light and I got mad at one of them he took, so he’s like coach, you gave me the green light and I say oh yeah, that’s right. I did.”
Stanford would lead 47-28 with 15:25 to go. Sellers was leading the way for the Cardinal with 13 points and five rebounds. Jaylen Blakes was up to seven points, three assists, and two steals, staying very active on defense. The Cardinal were on a 7-0 run over the last 1:01.
“That’s the first thing Coach Smith talked to us about is just be dogs on defense,” Raynaud said. “You can’t scout hustle. Like, that was his speech before the game and during halftime. So yeah, just like be hearing the help, be aggressive on the ball, and I think we had a couple of guys diving on the ball and I think that really sets the tone for a season. So yeah, I think it’s a good sign for us.”
Stanford continued to put their foot on the gas as they led 53-35 with 11:54 to go. Sellers was up to 16 points and five rebounds, leading the way for the Cardinal. Stanford was holding Denver to 2-12 shooting from 3-point range.
“It’s been coming,” Smith said of Sellers’ performance. “No one has a more, it’s like Ray Allen as far as like his preparation, the way he is routine driven, he’s never too high, never too low, and as he’s learned he’s gotten better. He’s got a growth mindset and whatever it was, it was pretty easy. I shouldn’t say easy, but very efficient scoring game. I felt like he took shots. He got one at the end of the clock he hit and he had a couple others, but the more comfortable he gets, he’s such a good shooter, you can live with a couple bad ones there and I hope he feels that, getting him in the lineup there. Starting us off and hopefully that’s just, I think we can keep growing from there.”
Stanford would lead 56-41 with 9:22 to go. Sellers was heating up with 18 points and six rebounds, really getting it done with transition dunks. It was like he was playing NBA Jam out there.
“It’s super fun,” Sellers said of the dunks. “I mean, I think everybody kind of loves dunking. I mean, especially if you play basketball and we got those opportunities just from being active on defense. A lot of those were transitions or off steals or loose balls. So us just being active got me all those dunks.”
With 5:42 to go, Stanford was up 71-47. Jaylen Blakes was up to 12 points for Stanford after a nice steal and finish in transition plus the foul. His defense was making a real impact as he had three steals.
From there, Stanford would cruise to an 85-62 victory. Denver played hard, but Stanford’s defense along with their solid shooting was too much for the Pioneers to overcome. The debut of Oziyah Sellers was really exciting and while he didn’t have his best performance, Maxime Raynaud still did this thing and comfortably walked out with a double double.
“Maxime, like I said, I can’t say this enough, as far as when you take over a program, your leading returning scorer, he’s been the best,” Smith said of Raynaud. “He’s fun to coach, it’s an honor to coach him and he cares so much, he wants to be good, and I just thought he was a little antsy, but it’s fine. He had nine and eight in the first half and I think three assists and a block and he was like four for eleven.
“So I think he was just trying to, took a couple of shots, I said, those will all be there. He wants to show off, he’s put in so much work. I said, you’ll get the trail threes, you’ll get that up, but keep the main thing the main thing. Go put it in the basket, take good decisions. You should be sixty from two and forty from three, but have six assists, three turnovers, his defense I think is vastly improved. I’m hoping from last year, but I was really pleased with him.”
“It felt great,” Sellers said of his Cardinal debut. “First one in the books, it always feels good to get a win. Especially with a new team. Kind of going into it unsure how we would be, but I trusted us and we came out with the win, so I’m happy for sure.”
For Stanford, this is a nice way to begin the Kyle Smith era. They demonstrated a lot of things that he looks for in his teams with stellar defense and unselfish play. The defense in particular is something we haven’t seen from Stanford in a while and so that was certainly a breath of fresh air to observe.
“You can ask them, we pound it every day: defend, rebound, take care of the ball,” Smith said. “We chant it before we go out on the floor and so it’s a non-negotiable if we’re ever and it’ll be hard. If we could sustain, but it was a great start. Jaylen Blakes, us getting him, I think we’re very fortunate because I think his trait is toughness and his on ball defense. A casual observer wouldn’t necessarily appreciate it that much, but you can be good defensively and have some pressure on the ball. I thought Anthony did a good job and Benny did a good job and Oziyah was in really good position defender and he got in on the party, so we’re really excited.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Cal State Fullerton on Friday. Tipoff is set for 1:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“I thought our guys played well, so we’ll see Friday and we’ll get a few days and I’m sure, we’ll have to look at some Cal State Fullerton,” Smith said. “I know Dedrique Taylor has done a nice job down there and been there a long time. So, it’ll probably give us another look. A lot of quickness I imagine and probably keeping guys in front and their quickness to the ball will be a good challenge.”
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