On Saturday, Stanford men’s basketball fell to Arizona State on the road in Tempe by a final score of 65-56. Arizona State graduate student guard Marreon Jackson (18 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists) and junior forward Jalen Graham (16 points) led the way for the Sun Devils while Stanford junior forward Spencer Jones (14 points) and sophomore forward Brandon Angel (14 points) were the top performers for the Cardinal. Arizona State finishes the regular season 14-16 overall and 10-10 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 15-15 overall and 8-12 in the Pac-12. Arizona State is locked into the 8 seed in the Pac-12 tournament while Stanford is locked into the 9 seed, which means they’ll play each other again in the first round next week on Wednesday.
“Well, tale of two halves a little bit,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “I thought in the first half, we did turn it over too much, but the execution was really good at the game plan. There was a couple minute stretch where we went south a little bit, but the guys did a great job regrouping. In the second half, game plan didn’t change, but we continued to turn the ball over. I thought took a few ill-advised shots. And it just takes a couple mistakes to let things get out of control there at the end and guys fought hard, locker room’s together, and I thought they really competed and wanted to do well. And hopefully this experience will pay off down the road.”
Stanford jumped out to a strong 22-13 lead with 11:36 to go in the first half. Spencer Jones was off to a hot start for the Cardinal with 9 points on 3-3 shooting from the field, all of which were 3-point attempts. Stanford was shooting 8-10 from the field while Arizona State was shooting 6-14 (42.9%) from the field.
Arizona State would start to creep back into the game as it was a 24-20 Stanford lead with 6:55 to go in the half. Stanford had zero points in the last 3+ minutes. They needed to get going on offense.
Arizona State would then take the lead to go up 28-26 with 4:34 to go in the half. Arizona State was on a 12-2 run over the last 5:13. Stanford had really cooled off since that hot start.
To Stanford’s credit, they found a way to retake the lead to go up 32-30 at halftime. Spencer Jones (10 points on 3-6 3PT) led the Cardinal while Marreon Jackson (9 points) led the Sun Devils. This one was a battle.
With 11:57 to go, Arizona State led 43-40 as the back and forth game continued. Graham was starting to heat up for the Sun Devils with 12 points. Jones was still the only Cardinal in double figures with 10 points. Others needed to help him out.
The game stayed tight as it was a 51-49 Arizona State lead with 6:49 to go. Jackson (15 points) and Graham (14 points) were leading the Sun Devils. Jones (14 points) was leading the way for the Cardinal while Jaiden Delaire (8 points) and Brandon Angel (8 points) were approaching double figures.
With 6:13 to go, Stanford would actually take a 52-51 lead after Angel nailed a triple and was up to 11 points. Stanford looked like they might have one final burst in them.
Unfortunately for Stanford, that 3-pointer from Angel was rather like the final ounce of gas left in the tank as opposed to being a second wind. Arizona State from there would slowly pull away as DJ Horne, Marreon Jackson, and Jalen Graham collectively led the Sun Devils on a 10-0 run to lead 61-52 with 2:13 to go and from there hang on for a comfortable 65-56 victory.
For Stanford, this was a disappointing loss in that like Thursday, they were in it for much of the game only to fade away late. At the same time, they also have to feel better knowing they at least gave a spirited effort and looked like a solid basketball team. Something they hadn’t looked like since their road trip to face the Oregon schools.
Up next for Stanford will be their Pac-12 tournament game against Arizona State. That game will tip-off on Wednesday at 12:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
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