On Friday, Stanford men’s basketball soundly defeated Cal Poly 80-43 at home. Michael Jones and Max Murrell each had 15 points for the Cardinal while Spencer Jones and Maxime Raynaud each had 10 points. Trevon Taylor led the way for the Mustangs with 12 points. Stanford improves to 2-2 on the season while Cal Poly falls to 1-2.
“Feels good to play in a lot of ways a clean game,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “A lot of positives to build off of. I thought we played hard, even when we had a lead I thought, really for the most part, we played very selfless basketball. Trying to take care of each other. Nice to break down the tape, watch the tape, grade it, and then cheer on the Stanford football team tomorrow in the Big Game. So I’m excited about that. So a lot of good feelings going into that.
“Making shots makes everything look better. 10 threes in the first half and 14 overall. It cures a lot of mistakes. There could be some bobbled passes or this or that or the other thing. But when the ball goes in everything looks a lot better. After the last couple of games I’ve talked about I do believe we are a better shooting team than we’ve shown and tonight we saw that. I don't know that we're going to make 14 threes a game, but I do think you saw a team that is very capable shooting, very confident and that made a big difference in the game.”
Stanford got off to a strong start right away, leading 8-0 with 15:43 to go in the first half. James Keefe was on fire early with 5 points. Soon it would be a 17-0 lead for Stanford with 14:11 to go in the half as Michael Jones and Spencer Jones each had 6 points. Stanford was really heating up. After a layup from Michael O’Connell, it was a 19-0 lead for Stanford with 13:04 to go in the half. All things were going the Cardinal’s way.
“Yeah, I thought we competed early,” Haase said. “Honestly, I think the guys were excited to play after the last couple games. We wanted to get back on the winning side of things and I think the defense early on was important. I don’t think we’ve been a great starting team, necessarily the first three games and I think we talked about the idea of starting strong really on the defensive end especially to be able to make sure we impose our will a little bit and I thought we did that in a variety of different ways. A few changes or a few wrinkles to our defense. I think scouting was really good and we were able to capitalize on those.”
With 10:52 to go in the half, it was a 26-3 lead for Stanford as Cal Poly finally got on the board. Stanford was not messing around, shooting 4-6 from 3-point range. Michael Jones was up to 8 points on 2-2 shooting from the field, 1-1 shooting from 3-point range, and 3-3 shooting from the foul line.
“I think over an entire season, the ebbs and flows are gonna, you’re gonna be who you are,” Haase said of the 3-point shooting. “Spencer Jones in my mind is a 40 to 42 percent 3-point shooter. Michael Jones is a 40 to 42, which is really good. And I think at the end of the year, that’s where they’ll be. And they’re gonna have some games where they’re 4 for 4 and probably some games where they’re 0 for 4. But I think at the end of the day when it’s a longer term proposition, I do think things tend to balance out. So, with a couple bad shooting games there wasn’t a concern from my part of oh my gosh, are we not what I think we are.”
“We know that we’re a good shooting team,” Murrell added. “And so you know, we had a couple bad games last two games and so I think our work has kind of showed off this game and I think yeah, it was due, I guess.”
The spanking would continue as Stanford led 35-9 with 7:58 to go in the half. Stanford was shooting 12-16 (75.0%) from the field and 7-9 from the foul line. Michael Jones was leading the way for Stanford with 11 points.
“Yeah, I would say so, but it’s like that every game, I wanna come out and get off to a great start,” Jones said. “Just come out, execute what we did in practice, had a great series of practice, able to find ourselves in good positions early, got out to an early lead.”
It would then be a 40-11 lead for Stanford with 4:31 to go in the half. Stanford was going wild, shooting 14-21 from the field and 8-11 from 3-point range. Cal Poly was just the opposite, shooting 3-14 from the field and 3-10 from 3-point range.
At halftime, it was a 47-19 lead for Stanford. Max Murrell and Michael Jones each had 12 points. The domination continued.
Stanford would lead 55-27 with 15:26 to go. Michael Jones (15 points) and Max Murrell (13 points) were leading the way for the Cardinal. With 12:36 to go it was a 64-27 lead for Stanford as they were on a 12-0 run. Raynaud was having a nice night for Stanford with 8 points. From the perimeter, Stanford was shooting 14-22. All things were clicking.
With 7:48 to go, Stanford led 70-35. Brandon Angel found Harrison Ingram for a nice bucket inside. Ingram was up to 5 points and 7 assists, having another well-rounded game.
In the end, Stanford walked out with an 80-43 victory. This was one-way traffic for the Cardinal from the opening tip. Cal Poly battled hard, but they were no match for the 3-point barrage that came their way from the Cardinal.
For Haase, this win has a little extra significance in that it was his 100th win on The Farm. He found out earlier in the day that he was one away and his players helped him celebrate afterwards.
“I just learned that that was a possibility today and the guys decided to throw cold water on me, so I’m freezing right now,” Haase said with a smile. “I changed my shirt, but it is. And I’m very grateful for the players and the coaches that have helped get to that.”
Up next for Stanford is a game on Thanksgiving Day against Ole Miss as part of the ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, FL. That game will tipoff at 10:30 AM PT on ESPNU.
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