On Friday, Stanford men’s basketball lost to Santa Clara on the road by a final score of 88-72. Santa Clara senior guard PJ Pipes led the way for the Broncos with 24 points and 6 assists while junior guard Jalen Williams finished with 19 points and 4 assists. Stanford freshman forward Harrison Ingram was the top performer for the Cardinal with 19 points and 6 rebounds while freshman big man Maxime Raynaud had his first career double-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 block. Santa Clara improves to 2-0 on the season while Stanford falls to 1-1.
Santa Clara got off to a nice 12-5 lead with 15:47 to go in the first half, shooting 4-7 from the field as senior forward Josip Vrankic was up to 5 points on 2-3 shooting from the field. Stanford took an early 5-0 lead thanks to Jaiden Delaire getting a bucket inside and Harrison Ingram knocking down a 3-pointer, but since then it was a 12-0 Santa Clara run.
With 13:20 to go in the half, Santa Clara was up 16-5 as the 12-0 run turned into a 16-0 run. Stanford needed to establish a rhythm offensively and also figure out to not allow Santa Clara to score so easily.
“Well it started with transition defense early in the game,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said of the easy threes Santa Clara got. “We weren’t getting back and there were a couple missteps in the half-court defense. But the transition defense led to some open threes and their confidence skyrocketed from there. And some of the threes were contested to a decent level, but too many were not. And it was transition defense, it was gambling a few times that we didn’t have to do. And the defensive breakdowns for us when we’re not fundamentally sound lead to those shots.”
Santa Clara would lead 26-10 with 10:45 to go in the half. Santa Clara was shooting 10-14 (71.4%) from the field and 5-7 from deep. It was just too easy for the Broncos. A dunk by Max Murrell and a 3-pointer from Isa Silva broke the Cardinal’s scoring drought.
Stanford would then go on a 7-0 run. Raynaud got 4 points including a nice slam while Michael O’Connell knocked down a 3-pointer. Santa Clara called for time. 28-18 the Broncos were up with 7:56 to go in the half.
Stanford would continue to climb back into the game, trimming Santa Clara’s lead to six points (30-24) with 6:01 to go in the half. Raynaud was making a huge impact as he was up to 6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block in just 6 minutes of action.
Rather than tying up the game and narrowing the gap even further, Stanford started to run out of gas a bit as Santa Clara led 40-26 with 3:07 to go in the half. If Stanford didn’t muster up some sort of final burst before halftime, they were going to be in a lot of trouble.
At halftime, Santa Clara would lead 45-32. PJ Pipes (12 points & 5 rebounds) and Josip Vrankic (11 points) led the way for the Broncos while Stanford freshman center Maxime Raynaud was the reason Stanford had any pulse at all as he was up to 10 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block.
Santa Clara got off to a solid start in the second half as well, building on the first half they had. With 17:06 to go, the Broncos would lead 58-35. They were having fun out there and their crowd was going wild. It was danger time for the Cardinal.
“I think that’s hard to quantify,” Haase said of the impact of the road atmosphere. “Obviously we didn’t respond well. I think we broke things off offensively, just maybe the excitement, maybe being on the road that we didn’t have the discipline to execute and be, we use the word surgical on the offensive end is how we want to play and we did not do that. And on the defensive end, they fed off the energy and we didn’t and at times there was a little bit of shell shock and it is a true road game early on. Especially for the young guys. Our four sophomores have never played a game in front of fans period and on the road and obviously the freshmen as well. So, it’s an experience we can hopefully learn from and not repeat the same mistake.”
Santa Clara’s lead would expand further 62-38 with 15:48 to go. Raynaud (13 points on 6-6 FG) and Ingram (11 points on 4-7 FG) came to play for Stanford while the rest of the Cardinal were pretty silent. Santa Clara was shooting 10-16 from deep. Pipes was going wild with 17 points on 7-7 shooting from the field and 3-3 shooting from 3-point range.
Santa Clara would lead 71-50 with 11:39 to go. Raynaud (16 points) and Ingram (17 points) were continuing to ball out, but they needed help. Pipes (20 points) continued to shine for the Broncos.
With 7:26 to go, Santa Clara was up 82-60. Pipes (22 points) continued his stellar night, shooting 9-10 from the field and 4-4 from 3-point range. Stanford was unable to contain him at all during this game. With 3:58 to go, Santa Clara would lead 84-66 as Raynaud fouled out for the Cardinal. He did his part to help his team out, but just didn’t get enough help.
“No question, I thought he was fantastic,” Haase said of Raynaud. “I thought his energy, his passion out there was really really good. Scoring the basketball, rebounding the basketball, and defensively, he provided some nice things as well. Obviously a huge upside for him and if he is consistent with his effort and really kinda stays the course, which I expect him to do, he could be really good.”
To Stanford’s credit, they actually found a way to close the gap a bit, though it wouldn’t affect the final outcome. They would trail 86-72 with 1:31 to go, doing a nice job of not giving up and playing hard until the final buzzer sounded. In the end, Santa Clara walked out with an 88-72 win.
“We didn’t play great in the second half, either,” Haase admitted. “They are a good team and they are well coached, they’re well prepared. All those things. But second half, there was a little bit more of a flow offensively, a little bit more executing the plan, not to the level we need. And then defensively, I think we played a little bit harder and a little bit more true to the game plan.”
For Stanford, this is obviously a frustrating loss considering that they came in favored and also had a little bit of confidence following their opening night win and strong second half performance against Tarleton State. This was a game they should have won or at a minimum made a lot closer than it was. Santa Clara was in control the whole night and that’s something that shouldn’t have happened.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is learn from this game and move onto the next one. Santa Clara has a solid team and they created a nice road atmosphere. So by no means is this a loss that should cause Stanford to hit the panic button or anything along those lines.
“The experience for the freshmen in particular is going to pay dividends,” Haase said. “Harrison has maybe played on the national stage a little bit with not only AAU in high school, but also with the international competition. But just the more experience for Isa, the more experience for Maxime, I think every minute they get out there it’s going to pay dividends and obviously they all contributed at a high level and we’re going to look for that moving forward.
“It [this loss] won’t be demoralizing. We’re going to learn from it, we’re going to be very strategic in how we explain things. The guys believe in what we’re doing and so we won’t let it be demoralizing, but we will learn from it. There’s a lot to learn from and we have to regroup for Monday.”
Up next for Stanford will be a home game against San Jose State on Monday night. That game will tipoff at 8:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and Cardinal Sports Network Radio.
Note: After being held out of Tuesday’s game with a day-to-day injury, sophomore guard Noah Taitz returned for the Cardinal, playing 1 minute.
