On Saturday, Stanford men’s basketball fell to Pittsburgh on the road by a final score of 83-68. Pittsburgh guard Ishmael Leggett had 21 points and six rebounds for the Panthers while guard Jaland Lowe had 16 points and five assists. Stanford center Maxime Raynaud had 21 points and 5 rebounds for the Cardinal while forward Chisom Okpara also finished in double figures with 14 points. Pittsburgh improves to 12-2 overall and 3-0 in the ACC while Stanford falls to 9-5 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference: Pittsburgh
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Pittsburgh-Saturday, January 4th
“We got off to a good start, I thought we were playing pretty well, and bothering them a little bit, mixed up our defenses, and then they really stepped on the gas a little bit at the end of the first half,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “Went in there up eight and I challenged our guys the first part of the second half and they answered. We had some moments there, but really couldn’t recover. Their guards are really good. I think like it was nine for nine from 2s. That’s hard to do. They played really well. You’re gonna have to play really well to win on the road. Especially against a really good team and I think Pitt’s a good team. So, we’ll have to get better.”
This game was tied up 7-7 with 15:50 to go in the first half. Stanford was shooting 3-5 from the field while Pittsburgh was shooting 3-7. Stanford would go on a bit of a run to lead 22-13 with 9:50 to go in the half. Maxime Raynaud was up to 11 points and three rebounds for the Cardinal while Oziyah Sellers was up to six points and three rebounds. The Cardinal were off to a great start.
Pittsburgh would start to get back in the game as Stanford led 24-18 with 7:19 to go in the half. Stanford was shooting 9-18 from the field while Pittsburgh was shooting 8-18. Free throws were making a difference as Stanford was 4-4 from the line while Pittsburgh was 0-0.
The game continued to be tight as Pittsburgh would tie the game up 28-28 with 3:52 to go in the half. Maxime Raynaud was up to 14 points and four rebounds for the Cardinal while Ishmael Leggett was up to 11 points for the Panthers. Both guys were playing well.
At halftime, Pittsburgh led 38-30. Pittsburgh finished the half on a 12-2 run as Leggett was now up to 13 points. The Panthers had the momentum now.
Pittsburgh would open the second half on a 6-0 run to lead 44-30 with 17:55 to go. It was now an 18-2 run over both halves. Stanford was in real trouble now.
With 15:43 to go, Pittsburgh led 49-32. The Panthers were starting to run away with the victory at this point. They were in a great offensive flow while the Cardinal were struggling to get anything going on offense.
Pittsburgh led 55-38 with 11:55 to go. A triple by Chisom Okpara finally gave the Cardinal their first field goal of the half. Their offense had really been struggling.
Pittsburgh would lead 61-44 with 7:44 to go. Leggett was up to 21 points for the Panthers, really balling out. Stanford was trying to get back in this, but they were basically trading baskets.
From there, it continued to be Stanford and Pittsburgh trading baskets as Pittsburgh would eventually walk out with an 83-68 victory. Stanford played hard the entire way, but there was a key stretch at the end of the first half and beginning of the second half that really did them in.
For Pittsburgh, this is a nice win. Getting Ishmael Leggett back after he missed the previous game against Cal was huge. Had he not been a go, perhaps this game would have gone a different way. After getting down early, they quickly settled in, took the lead, and pretty much coasted from there.
“Guys respond differently in that. Usually it’s harder,” Smith said when asked what he’d expect from Leggett coming off an injury. “Usually the guys are sometimes out of sync and maybe that was for the first ten minutes to be honest and then he’s the kinda guy it seems like if he sees the ball in the hoop it probably gets him, he forgot about all the pain. He was just like I’m hooping. So, he was tough.”
As for Stanford, the biggest thing they can take from this game is they need to find ways to get more production from players other than Maxime Raynaud. He’s going to give them 20+ points and a bunch of rebounds every night, but outside of him, you don’t know what you’re going to get from everybody else. There needs to be more consistency around him and that’s something that Kyle Smith I’m sure is trying to develop.
The other piece is just getting used to the travel a bit as this was their first East Coast trip of the season. Though when asked about that, Smith didn’t seem to think the travel was much of an issue.
“I felt like we weren’t,” Smith said when asked if they were travel weary. “I was kinda, you don’t know, like this is the first time we made a trip back like this and it could have showed up, but you know, on the road I’ve coached in Ivy League when you had to play back-to-backs. I’ve done some, you know, I’ve coached West Coast where you had short turnarounds. So, I was pleased with how our energy was. I was to be honest. Our execution wasn’t as good, but I think that’s important that our energy was okay and we wore out a little bit, but overall, I don’t think that was a factor.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Virginia Tech on Wednesday, January 8th. Tipoff is set for 6:00 PM PT on ACC Network.
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