On Thursday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Utah on the road in Salt Lake City by a final score of 78-72 to claim their first road victory of the season. Stanford senior forward Spencer Jones led the way for the Cardinal with 22 points and 5 rebounds while grad transfer guard Michael Jones had 15 points and 4 assists. Utah guard Lazar Stefanovic was the top performer for the Runnin’ Utes with 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
“Well, getting a conference road win is always a big deal,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “And we just played a really good team. And they delivered a heck of a punch to start the second half: Made a bunch of threes, came after us, and our guys responded really well, it turned into a, just an old fashioned big time game. Both teams hitting hard, trying to get inside, trying to get points around the rim, and trying to defend around the rim, and obviously I’m proud of the guys. We fought hard. We’ve had some low points this year, but this is certainly a high point.”
Stanford led 7-5 with 15:15 to go in the first half. Spencer Jones was off to a strong start for the Cardinal with 5 points while Maxime Raynaud had a bucket inside. Stanford was shooting 3-6 from the field while Utah was shooting 2-5.
With 11:35 to go in the half, it was a 15-11 lead for the Cardinal. Spencer Jones (7 points) and Brandon Angel (6 points) continued to ball out for the Cardinal. Stanford was shooting 6-11 from the field while Utah was shooting 4-11.
The game continued to be tight as Stanford led 24-22 with 7:01 to go in the half. Stefanovic had really come alive for the Utes with 10 points on 4-7 shooting from the field and 2-4 shooting from 3-point range. Harrison Ingram was up to 4 points for the Cardinal. He had a triple and a foul shot.
Stanford 31 Utah 24 was the score with 4:20 to go in the half. Spencer Jones was up to 12 points for the Cardinal on 5-6 shooting from the field and 2-3 shooting from deep. It was a 7-0 run for the Cardinal over the last 1:08. 0 points for the Utes over the last 2:19.
“Yes sir, absolutely,” Jones said when asked about the mentality of punching teams first. “No, we came out strong. I remember I started off with a drive taking it in the hole, really tried to set the tone, and then everybody else kinda followed and then up fifteen at half and obviously we had to fix the start to the second half, but that first half, that’s something we struggled to do early on this season. It’s great to see us now finally do it.”
Stanford 46 Utah 31 was the score at halftime. Spencer Jones was leading the Cardinal with 15 points on 6-8 shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range while Michael Jones had 12 points on 3-3 shooting from the field, 2-2 shooting from 3-point range, and 4-4 shooting from the foul line.
“He was awesome,” Haase said of Spencer Jones. “Shot the ball with confidence, was able to get the ball to the paint, defensively he’s a presence, can really slide his feet, but seniors, that’s what you need, what you expect from seniors that have been around for a while, and I thought he played a heck of a game.”
“I mean, you know, I try to say I don’t play any different any other game,” Jones added. “You know, sometimes shots just go in and they don’t. But, for me it’s just always staying aggressive. I know that if my shots are rolling, it gets the other guys confidence and usually they shoot a little bit better. So, as a senior leader, I try to carry that on my shoulders and make sure that whenever we need a bucket, they’re confident that I’ll be able to deliver it, so.”
Stefanovic was leading Utah with 10 points. A real key play at the end of the half was Michael Jones getting fouled attempting a 3-pointer with 0.4 on the clock, He made all three foul shots, giving the Cardinal a nice boost of momentum heading into halftime.
“Well part of it was, I mean look, let’s be honest, when you shoot seven of ten from the three-point line, that’s going to be to your advantage,” Haase said of the strong start in the first half. “Also, in the last minute or two, I think it was a seven or eight point game and ballooned to fifteen points. We kinda had things go our way late in that first half. But I thought we were efficient. We were making some shots and that’s a big deal, but defensively I thought we protected the paint really well.”
With 16:00 to go, it was a 50-44 lead for Stanford. Utah was on a 10-0 run over the last 2:21. Stefanovic was up to 13 points for the Utes. Stanford needed to settle in and weather this storm.
“Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of changing of game plan,” Haase said of combating Utah’s run. “There might have been a changing of a play or let’s try and execute a play better, but there was no change in game planning and it was more just doubling down on what we were doing but trying to do it a little bit better and so we had lots of examples and timeouts of hey, this is what we’re supposed to do. Do this better, as opposed to hey, let’s change defenses, let’s change a whole lot of things and the guys just tried to do it better and as the half wore on, the second half, I thought we were more effective and efficient defensively.”
“Yeah, I think just running into the huddle, just talking it out kinda quick,” Stanford point guard Michael O’Connell added. “Everyone trusts each other, everyone knows when we get on the court we’re all gonna do the right things, so having that confidence and trusting each other it helps us stay calm in those types of situations.”
Stanford 57 Utah 54 was the score with 11:44 to go. It was now a real game. Stefanovic (16 points) and Branden Carlson (14 points & 6 rebounds) were leading this Ute comeback. Spencer Jones’ 17 points was leading the Cardinal. Both teams were shooting well from 3-point range: Stanford shooting 8-13 while Utah was 9-22.
“Yeah, look, I love shooting three-point shots,” Haase said. “I think we have some really good three-point shooters. But I think it’s a lot more effective we can get downhill and get to the paint. Utah does a great job of defending the paint themselves, they’re strong, they’re physical, they have length inside, but I thought our guys did a nice job sticking to the game plan and trying to find ways to get to the paint and for the most part, we were pretty strong with the basketball and made decent plays out.”
With 7:16 to go, it was a 63-59 lead for Stanford. Spencer Jones was now up to 19 points for the Cardinal while Michael Jones (12 points) and Michael O’Connell (10 points) were in double figures. Both teams were on a scoring drought: 0 points for Utah in the last 2:02; 0 points for Stanford in the last 2:23.
“Michael was fantastic,” Haase said of O’Connell. “Made some mid-range shots, but I think controlled the game really on both ends of the floor. Defensively, he was really good. Switched on different guys at different times, but I thought he was really fighting defensively. But offensively, when the ball was in his hands we tended to have a presence and the guys felt comfortable when it was in his hands, and we were able to run our plays and try and execute from there.”
“I just think the overall team confidence we had today coming into this game,” O’Connell said of the key to his performance. “We’ve been prepping for this game for a while, we know we’re a great team, so I feel like through warmups, through the first play to the end of the game, just overall confidence we had in the team, and it just translated through each guy and everyone was knocking down shots. Spencer was, Mike Jones was, I was, just overall confidence, it was through the roof tonight.”
Stanford 69 Utah 63 was the score with 3:04 to go as Stanford had possession. Stanford had a 33-30 edge on the glass. Rebounding had been really key. Stanford was in a good spot, just needing to finish strong.
“Ours was just sticking to our game plan,” Spencer Jones said of the key to staying in front. “I remember a couple of the colds, the guys who we’d sag off of, like Marco Anthony hit a three, stuff like that, but all of it was about protecting the red zone, which we weren’t doing that well in the second half. But, despite Stefanovic making a bunch of threes, it was just stick to our plan and then offense, don’t get too, don’t let them rush you, play inside out, and that’s what we did.”
With 1:03 to go, Stanford was up 74-67 with 1:03 to go. A huge triple by Michael Jones and a corner jumper by Maxime Raynaud appeared to suck all remaining life out of the Utes. Barring a total collapse by the Cardinal, this one was in the books.
“I hope so,” Haase said with a smile when asked if he felt like maybe the law of averages were starting to come around to their side. “I do think we have really good players and really good players make big-time plays and down the stretch and throughout the game. But down the stretch we had guys when it was important moments making shots, getting defensive plays, whether it’s a rebound or a blocked shot, but on the offensive end we had guys make some plays. Harrison’s two free throws when it was a four point game late, those are big plays. And so I was really proud of the guys having the guts to go ahead and have confidence and swagger when they’re shooting those shots.”
In the end, Stanford won 78-72. The late 3-pointer from Jones and corner jumper from Raynaud ended up being the daggers. Utah did a great job of making a comeback attempt, but when you get down by as much as they did at halftime, it’s just really hard to come all the way back. Especially when they were without their number two scorer Gabe Madsen.
“Adjustment-wise, we’re switching with Maxime, he’s switching out on guards,” Haase said of what adjustments they made after losing to Utah on The Farm. “And I, honestly, we did a lot of that last game, but he did it I think more effectively and more consistently this game. And then we’re putting ourselves in a position, we’re trying to front the post and trying to make it challenging to get it inside and it requires more than one guy and I think philosophically that was a good plan, they did get some easy baskets, but acting on the defensive end, that fit into the mindset that we wanted to guard the paint and we wanted to make sure they didn’t get easy baskets.
“In the second half they got some of those and then also, one of the byproducts of doing that is they’re gonna get a lot of three-point shots up and they got thirty four, I think it was, attempts. Made twelve of those. That’s a big number, but again philosophically what we were trying to do is protect the paint.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. It’s their first road win of the season and they are now on a five game winning streak. This has been a tough season for them and this victory by no means makes up for the hole they dug themselves into. They’re still a team that is below .500 and they can’t hide from that.
That said, Stanford is playing much better and looking like a more confident group. Their body language says it all. In the tunnel after the game, you could tell how much more relaxed they are. It’s like they’re finally getting the kind of results that they’ve always believed they were capable of getting.
“It’s big,” Haase said of getting this win. “But it’s also kind of the next step in the journey. We’ve had our struggles throughout the year, but we fought the whole time. It’s almost a cliché and now everybody kinda giggles I think, but the entire time when we were losing or now whether we were winning, I love coaching this team. I mean, they’ve had fight in them, they’re trying to do what I’ve asked them to do, we just couldn’t quite get the shots to fall, we weren’t quite effective defensively, but yes, it’s a shot in the arm. It can bolster our confidence, but I think in the big picture, it’s simply the next step in this journey and I think the guys have really bought into the idea that this is a journey. That we’re trying to get to the end to play our best at the end.”
One player who I feel was really key to Stanford’s victory was Michael O’Connell. The junior point guard did a great job of hitting the shots he was supposed to make, running the offense, and just being a calming presence out there as floor generals are supposed to be. In what I think is Stanford’s biggest win of the season, O’Connell delivered the goods and came up big.
“Just staying calm and staying together,” O’Connell said of the key to keeping his team dialed in. “We’ve definitely been there before where we’ve either been down a lot or we’ve given up a little bit of a lead when a team goes on a run. But when we can just sit down and stay together, we can talk through it, no one gets too emotional, too high or low on themself or each other, it’s easier to band together and just keep fighting. Keep doing what you’re doing, we just stay with what we normally do, we didn’t try to change anything too much, and we ended up weathering the storm.
“I just think I’ve always had confidence in myself and what I can do. But like I said, being out there with the guys, building that chemistry, knowing the gameplan, I think that’s the biggest thing. Every day getting those reps with each other. I just think as you do it more, you just become more comfortable. So I think that’s been the biggest thing this year.”
On top of this being the first road win of the season, this was also Stanford’s first road win at Utah during Spencer Jones’ time on The Farm. For Jones, that made this win all the sweeter. Utah’s had their number in Salt Lake, but not this time.
“I mean, for me personally it’s a huge win,” Jones said. “I’ve never won here. The mountain school schedule, especially on the road usually always has been tough for us, so it’s, for me it’s just like finally getting over the hump in my fourth year, being able to come in here and with such a resilient crowd that’s always given us trouble, you know, coming here with a, you have the altitude maybe, makes you a little bit more tired, so that just shows the resiliency of the team and how we came together. Especially fighting back from that, the first couple minutes of the second half and being able to still pull out the win, so it’s a great testament to how far we’ve come this season.”
As for Utah, this loss stings. You never want to lose at home and considering they’re hoping to maybe get some consideration for an NCAA tournament appearance, this is a loss that on paper would count as a “bad loss” given Stanford’s overall record. That said, they were without Madsen tonight and Stanford is playing much better than they were a month ago. So in that sense, this isn’t a loss that should make Utah panic. They just need to bounce back and take care of business going forward.
Up next for Stanford is a road game at Colorado on Sunday. That will tip-off at 4:00 PM PT on FS1.
“I mean, I think it’s a great win for us,” O’Connell said. “It’s continuing momentum like you said, it’s our fifth win in a row, and it’s a great opponent on the road. So I think we’ve had four wins at home but getting a road win against a great opponent is definitely great for the confidence and getting momentum going into our next game against Colorado.”
To connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
To connect with Ben Parker on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
