On Saturday, December 21st, Stanford men’s basketball fell to No. 10 Oregon at the San Jose Tipoff at the SAP Center by a final score of 76-61. Oregon forward Kwame Evans Jr. was the top performer for the Ducks with 13 points while guard Jackson Shelstad had 10 points and center Nate Bittle had nine points and nine rebounds. Stanford center Maxime Raynaud was the top performer for the night with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Oregon improves to 11-1 overall (1-1 Big Ten) while Stanford falls to 9-3 (1-0 ACC).
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Oregon-Saturday, December 21st
“That was a humbling game,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “Oregon was the better team today. I thought they played really well. Sometimes you gotta give the hat tip. I thought we came out and started well, we knew they, you know, familiarity with them. They’re gonna show you a lot of different looks pressure-wise, and get you late in the shot clock and they’re switching and we keeped into it a little bit and like I said, their will was a little better. Their defensive will was better than our offensive execution. We did some good things. We had some guys that made some positive steps, but they were the better team today and hopefully we grow from this and get better.”
Stanford led 5-4 with 14:57 to go in the first half. Maxime Raynaud had scored all of Stanford’s points. He had a 3-pointer and a dunk. Stanford was shooting 2-8 from the field while Oregon was shooting 1-6.
With 11:31 to go in the half, Oregon led 13-11. Bittle was leading the Ducks with five points on 2-2 shooting from the field plus a made foul shot while Raynaud was up to eight points for the Cardinal on 3-5 shooting from the field. Raynaud was in a nice groove as the Cardinal were playing hard.
Oregon would then gain some separation from Stanford, leading 23-14 with 7:30 to go in the half. Bittle was up to seven points and three rebounds for the Ducks while Keeshawn Barthelemy had six points. Raynaud was up to nine points and three rebounds for the Cardinal. Stanford was shooting an abysmal 2-11 from 3-point range.
With 3:10 to go in the half, Oregon led 32-19. Stanford hadn’t scored in the last 3:16. They were once again having a scoring drought that was not helping matters at all.
At halftime, Oregon led 36-19 as they closed out the half on a 9-0 run. Bittle was still the leading scorer for the Ducks with seven points and five rebounds while Raynaud led the Cardinal with nine points and seven rebounds.
“They just were relentless,” Smith said of Oregon. “Because like you said, they’re going to Kwame Evans, who was a top 30 player I think out of high school, off the bench. Keeshawn Barthelemy is a six year guy that I remember recruiting my first year at Washington State, off the bench. And I think Supreme Cook led the Big East in offensive rebounding last year, off the bench. So, like I said, their depth is good and some of our young guys, I think are gonna be good.
"They just kinda, just off kilter is hard. Benny’s just coming back, I thought we played well, but sometimes that can throw you off kilter a little bit and I thought Evan, he didn’t shoot the ball well, but Evan was, just gave us good energy. So again, Evan’s gonna have to go three for seven, not one for seven to have a chance and I’m not blaming him. I like his energy. I like the way he’s playing. I thought he took good shots, he was aggressive, sometimes you just gotta put the ball in the basket. That helps.”
Oregon would lead 50-30 with 14:54 to go. The Ducks were getting a lot more balanced scoring as Bittle’s nine points still led the way. Raynaud was up to 13 points and eight rebounds. He was doing his part for Stanford but needed more help.
For the next little while, it continued on the same trend as Oregon led 73-48 with 4:44 to go. Raynaud was up to 18 points and 12 rebounds for Stanford, but nobody else was in double figures. Evan Stinson was the number two scorer for the Cardinal with seven points.
To Stanford’s credit, they didn’t give up as they would make it a 74-59 game with 1:53 to go as they were on an 11-1 run. Benny Gealer was up to eight points for the Cardinal after a couple of threes and a layup.
However, the damage had been done by this point as Oregon won comfortably by a final score of 76-61. Stanford played hard until the end and was rewarded with a final score that looked better, but a double digit loss is still a double digit loss.
To touch quickly on Oregon, this is a solid win for them. It’s a neutral site game out of town and they took care of business against a Stanford team who arguably had the best player on the floor in Maxime Raynaud. They did a great job of not allowing others to get going and I think by and large looked like a team that should be ranked where they are.
“It was a good game for us,” Oregon head coach Dana Altman said. “We’re fortunate. They don’t shoot it real well, but we didn’t shoot it real well. I thought we had a lot of good looks that we should have hit…We got a lot of respect for Stanford and Kyle will do a great job. So, you know, when they approached us with this game, we were looking for a good opponent, we were looking for a power five opponent, and the travel was easy. So, it was a good game for us.”
As for Stanford, all they can do is learn from this and use it as a chance to grow. The biggest issue I saw from the Cardinal was they just didn’t shoot well enough: 37.1% FG, 26.7% 3PT, and 53.8% FT. They had opportunities to knock down threes and just didn’t convert. If they can develop a bit more confidence, they can absolutely win a game against a team of Oregon’s caliber.
“You know, I’ll go look at the tape, but I felt like we got good looks to be honest,” Smith said of their poor shooting. “You know, I thought, I just remember Ryan got a couple of good looks and it’s like gosh, we need some, you just kind of, we played a little tight and it kind of snowballed a little bit. I think it went under three for 17 and you’re gonna have to play really well in all facets and shooting is one of them. It’s an important one because they keep score by how many points you make.
“So three for 17 is not gonna get it done against a top ten team, but I’ll look at it. Might have taken one or two quick ones because I kind of want that pace, but overall we took a lot, maybe too many, but we’ve had success. I mean, Oziyah just wasn’t as good as he’s been and Jaylen wasn’t as good, and Ryan was opher from three, so you know, kudos to them, like I said, they kept themselves along, but we have to make some.”
Up next for Stanford is ACC play. The Cardinal are 1-0 in ACC play after their dominant win at Cal and now will resume the rest of their league schedule. Up next is a road game at No. 25 Clemson on New Year’s Day. Tipoff is set for 1:00 PM PT on ACC Network.
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