Recap: Stanford MBB dominates Eastern Washington
On Friday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Eastern Washington by a final score of 95-70. Stanford freshman small forward Andrej Stojakovic led the way for the Cardinal with 18 points on 7-12 shooting from the field and 3-6 shooting from 3-point range while graduate student shooting guard Michael Jones had 15 points and four rebounds. Eastern Washington forward Ethan Price led the way for the Eagles with 19 points. Stanford improves to 3-1 overall while Eastern Washington falls to 0-4.
BOX SCORE: Eastern Washington at Stanford
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference | Eastern Washington
“Well to begin, I want to give Eastern Washington a lot of credit,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “I think this is a program that has had a lot of success, is expecting to have a lot of success. When you look at their schedule, obviously they’re not afraid of playing a big time schedule. A lot of road games against high majors and they have a winning culture and so I think they’re gonna be a team that continues to improve throughout the year and really probably make a nice run this year.
“I apologized to them afterwards. I didn’t necessarily love the last three and that kinda thing. But at the same time, I love my team and enjoying having success and celebrating. But I also want to make sure that we do it in the right way. But, I have a ton of respect and I think Eastern Washington is gonna have a heck of a year.”
Eastern Washington jumped out to an early 16-4 lead with 16:23 to go in the first half. Cedric Coward was up to nine points for the Eagles, really having the hot hand from 3-point range. After a triple from Price, the Eagles led 26-14 with 9:05 to go in the half.
It was at this point that Stanford’s comeback began. Stanford would go on a 17-0 run to lead 31-26 with 5:16 to go in the 3rd quarter. Jared Bynum had nine points for the Cardinal during that run while Benny Gealer and Ryan Agarwal each knocked down a 3-pointer of their own.
“We trust our shooters,” Stanford graduate student forward James Keefe said. “It’s the law of averages. You miss some shots, you think they’re good shots, continue to put confidence in your shooters, continue to get them the ball in the right spots, and then I mean as you guys saw, they started falling from all over. He [Stojakovic] hit a couple and yeah, you just trust our talent and trust our work, really. That’s what it comes down to.”
Stanford would finish the half strong to lead 47-35 at halftime. They got a scare in the first half, but found a way to bounce back and have a comfortable lead at the break.
“Obviously, they took it to us early,” Haase said. “I didn’t think it was a lack of effort on our part. We maybe even bought into the scouting report a little bit too much. They hit some threes right off the bat and jumped out to an early lead. I thought our guys really had a level head about themselves. Understand we’re gonna stick to the game plan and continue to just try to do a little bit better. The thing I told them that I was really proud of at that point after they jumped on us early is I thought we were playing hard, but I didn’t know if we were truly competing and I think the rest of the half and then somewhat sustained through the game, the competing part was there.
“It’s the second effort of hey you didn’t get the first thing to have go your way, but you sprint off a little bit faster. Or the rebound is not a clean rebound so you go make a second effort. I thought the second effort plays were there on the defensive end in particular. I think we continue to see that we have a willing passing team that wants to share the basketball. That enjoys each other’s success. I thought as the game wore on, we saw that more and more and more. But it’s a good way to end this home stretch and prepare ourselves for the Bahamas.”
Stojakovic started to get going in the second half with a big dunk to fire up the crowd, giving the Cardinal a 51-40 lead with 18:05 to go. With 10:20 to go, Stojakovic was up to 17 points as Stanford led 72-50. The Cardinal were in firm control.
“I mean yeah, just in momentum it’s always nice to just have that type of play to just take care of the whole bench and like everyone’s getting excited,” Stojakovic said of his dunk. “So, that was a good part of our rally. Part of our run to come back from those first four minutes in the game. So, just coming out like that in the second half, we just needed to play like that and we had multiple, so yeah.”
From there, Stanford would expand their lead a bit more and win by a final score of 95-70. Once Stanford was able to get a comfortable lead after being down early, they were able to cruise to a victory from there.
For Stanford, this was a win they needed to have and to their credit, they got the job done. Brandon Angel (hand) and Spencer Jones (wrist) were both out due to injury while Kanaan Carlyle is still out due to some academic issue. So, to win by 25 points with those guys unavailable is encouraging.
“Yeah I mean I think a key part of our kind of identity that we're trying to build as a team is that it doesn't matter how the game looks, it doesn't matter what the crowd is in Maples, it doesn't matter who the opponent is, doesn't matter if we are playing in the Bahamas, at Pauley Pavilion or home,” Keefe said. “We're trying to bring the same level of intensity and fight every night and so I think we did that tonight to answer your question.”
Up next for Stanford is a trip to the Bahamas as part of a three-game tournament. Up first will be Arkansas on Wednesday, November 22nd. That will tip off at 4:30 PM PT on ESPNU. Brandon Angel and Spencer Jones both remain day-to-day going into the tournament.
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