Recap: Stanford MBB takes #2 Arizona to the wire in Pac-12 tournament loss
On Thursday, Stanford men’s basketball fell to #2 Arizona in the Pac-12 tournament by a final score of 84-80. Arizona junior center Christian Koloko led the way for Arizona with 24 points and 9 rebounds while sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin had 20 points and 7 rebounds. Stanford junior forward Spencer Jones had another career-high in scoring, this time with 28 points and 8 rebounds on 12-18 shooting from the field and 4-7 shooting from 3-point range while freshman forward Harrison Ingram had 16 points and 6 rebounds. Jones became 9th on the Stanford all-time 3-point list, passing Chris Hernandez.
“Today was a battle from start to finish,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said after the game. “Our guys competed from the start. Obviously Arizona is talked about as a national championship-caliber team, and for good reason. I thought they did a lot of nice things. They handle -- have some guys that will be playing at the next level, at a very, very high level, and their game plan was great.
“Going inside I thought we competed and fought with Koloko. 10 of 12 from the field obviously is tough, but at the same time I thought we executed our game plan really well down the stretch, gave ourselves opportunities. A couple of balls didn't end up in our hands or didn't go in the basket when we needed it. But as a whole, I thought we competed really hard, executed the game plan, and we have a locker room full of guys that really played for each other tonight.”
Early on the game was tight as Arizona led 9-8 with 15:54 to go in the first half. Stanford guard Michael O’Connell was up to 6 points. The Cardinal were battling tough. Arizona would then lead 19-17 with 11:42 to go in the half. Stanford continued to fight as Maxime Raynaud got a nice offensive rebound and pass out to Isa Silva for a 3-pointer.
Something Jerod Haase did for a second game in a row is start sophomore forward Max Murrell. When asked about that decision post-game, Haase said he did it to mix things up and hopefully give his team a spark. That move seemed to pay off as his team got off to a solid start.
“I just wanted to shake it up a little bit, just a different look,” Haase said of the move. “That also provided a lot of firepower coming off the bench with Jaiden and Brandon. It was good for our rotations.
“I thought our rotations -- as a staff, we really managed that part of it. I was really pleased about how that went, and starting Max kind of allowed that to be the case. He came in with great energy, does his best out there, fights like crazy. I think had three assists in the first half, and just wanted honestly nothing more than just trying to change it up, and it did certainly help with our rotations.”
With 7:42 to go in the half, Arizona led 25-22. Christian Koloko was doing work inside for Arizona with 8 points and 3 rebounds. Michael O’Connell had 8 points of his own for Stanford on 3-4 shooting from the field and 2-2 shooting from 3-point range.
Stanford would then take the lead 32-30 with 3:27 to go in the half. Stanford was shooting 13-25 (54.2%) from the field and 5-7 (71.4%) from 3-point range. Arizona was shooting (11-24) 45.8% from the field and 3-9 (33.3%) from 3-point range. Spencer Jones was heating up for the Cardinal with 13 points. After Isa Silva made a pair of foul shots, it was now a 34-30 lead for Stanford.
Ingram made a triple to put Stanford up by five points. Mathurin then responded with two threes for Arizona to put the Wildcats up 38-37 with 1:04 to go in the half. It was a back and forth affair.
At halftime, Arizona led 40-37. Mathurin was leading the Wildcats with 14 points on 4-9 shooting from the field, 4-6 shooting from 3-point range, and 2-2 shooting from the foul line. Jones’ 13 points was leading Stanford on 6-8 shooting from the field and 1-2 shooting from 3-point range. The game was tight.
Stanford got off to a strong start in the second half, leading 52-49 with 15:35 to go. Jones was up to 19 points for the Cardinal on 8-11 shooting from the field and 3-5 shooting from 3-point range. He was on fire. O’Connell was also up to 11 points while Ingram had five points after a nice bucket inside.
With 11:19 to go, Stanford led 59-58 as Jones was up to 26 points. He was going wild. The Cardinal continued to hang tough.
“We might have had a mistake here and there. But when a guy is that hot, there's contesting the shot, and there's not allowing somebody to have a shot,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said of Jones. “He probably slid over to that category, and we gave him a couple and felt like contesting, felt like good defense. But he's got a quick trigger and a high shooting pocket, and he's tall. You put those together, he can shoot right over the top of defenses, and not many guys can do that.”
Arizona would lead 65-63 with 7:41 to go. Mathurin (18 points & 7 rebounds) and Koloko (16 points & 4 rebounds) led Arizona. Jones (26 points) was obviously leading Stanford, tying his career-high from just one day ago. The game continued to be a dog fight.
Arizona would then lead 70-67 with 6:19 to go. It was a new career-high for Jones as he was up to 28 points. Stanford was not giving up, especially Jones, who was having a career night despite not appearing to be at full strength. He was on the bike while on the bench and trainers were working on him constantly. The fact that he was having this kind of game was remarkable.
“It's just the belief,” Jones said of his career week. “Coach Haase wants me to take as many shots as I feel comfortable with, and I just had to be as aggressive as I could be, and that's how I should play from here on out.”
After back-to-back buckets from Ingram, it was now a 73-72 lead for Stanford with 4:25 to go. Arizona called for time. Every time Arizona threw a punch, Stanford had a punch to throw right back.
“Really everybody goes through a little shooting slump,” Ingram said of his bounce back performance. “And then Coach Haase and the rest of the coaching staff trusted me with the ball and trusted me making plays and allowing me to be myself out there is really what helped me get some points.”
“He's a talented player,” Lloyd said of Ingram. “He's a McDonald's All-American, Freshman of the Year in the conference. And I thought he maybe had just been trending downwards a little bit, just maybe freshmen wall or whatever reason kind of.
“But today he kind of came out. You saw he had little bounce in this step. And he made a play or two early. And like their whole team. Their whole team rose to that occasion. They are spirited. Their locker room was not too far from ours, and they were excited to play, excited at halftime.
“They're in the same hotel as us. I was in the elevator with a bunch of them today, and they're great kids. High character coaches, high character program, and they gave a great effort today.”
With 1:02 to go, it was an 80-77 lead for Arizona. Stanford had the ball. It was crunch time.
With 12.0 to go, it was an 82-80 Arizona lead as they had the ball. Koloko got a slam inside for Arizona while Ingram responded with a really tricky 3-pointer. Stanford was running out of time, but they were still in it.
In the end, Arizona hung on to win 84-80. While the Wildcats were expected to win, nobody expected Stanford to put up this kind of a fight. It really was a spirited effort by the Cardinal.
For Stanford, while this game didn’t go the way they wanted it to, they have to feel good about the way they won their opening game against Arizona State and took perhaps the best team in the country to the wire. Stanford definitely ends the season with some positive momentum and with a quality recruiting class coming in, so there’s a lot of reasons to have optimism for next season. Especially if Harrison Ingram decides to come back for a sophomore year.
“Look, I evaluate the program in so many ways and evaluate a game in so many different ways, and we can be very honest that the winning part of it is extremely important,” Haase said. “Having said that, there's a lot of other ways I do evaluate it. And a lot of guys are banged up, fighting through fatigue, fighting through bumps and bruises.
“But never were there excuses, never was there any give-in from any of the guys. And the resolve, the toughness is really something that, if we can keep that as a foundation for the program, it's gonna serve us well.”
On that note, Stanford AD Bernard Muir put out a statement post-game stating that Jerod Haase will be back for Stanford next season. Given all that this team has gone through and the way they competed to end the season, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Haase will be given another year to further grow this team. The players fought hard for him at the end and he in turn has showed that he really cares about his players and building something at Stanford. That’s not something that should be taken lightly.
Up next for Stanford is the off-season. As was said above, they ended the season with some positive momentum. It’s just a matter of building on the end of this season and putting themselves in a position to reach the NCAA tournament.
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