On Saturday, Stanford men’s basketball defeated Virginia at home by a final score of 88-65. Stanford center Maxime Raynaud led the way for the Cardinal with 24 points & 10 rebounds while guards Oziyah Sellers (15 points) and Jaylen Blakes (10 points) finished in double figures. Virginia guard Isaac McKneely was the top performer for the Cavaliers with 22 points. Stanford improves to 11-5 overall and 3-2 in the ACC while Virginia falls to 8-8 overall and 1-4 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford MBB Postgame Press Conference: Virginia
VIDEO: Virginia MBB Postgame Press Conference: Stanford
BOX SCORE: Virginia at Stanford-Saturday, January 11th
“Yeah, I felt like that was probably our best game wire to wire,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “Obviously, we had a little trouble guarding them early in the game. We usually run people off the three and their five for six to start, but we just played with such purpose on the offensive end, really good with the ball, played unselfishly, didn’t take many bad shots and we were good on the rebound, really good on the glass.
“And then that last ten minutes, kinda tighten up the D and it was good for kind of extent pushed the lead out when Jaylen and Max were on the bench, which was really positive growth for our confidence of our team and our bench was really, Donavin started and did well, but then Chisom came in and did well, Aidan did really well, Benny did really well, so it was nice just to have our bench kind of step up and play really well.”
With 15:28 to go in the first half, it was tied 8-8 as Donavin Young and Oziyah Sellers each had three points for the Cardinal while Ryan Agarwal had two points. Young was making the first start of his career, bringing good energy. After getting down 8-2, Virginia was on a 6-0 run over the last minute.
“He just gives us a dynamic forward that we don’t have necessarily as far as just a, like I said, I told Stanford people he reminds me of Josh Huestis,” Smith said of Young. “You know, that can defend, he can switch one through five, he’s got grit on the court, and is just a plus athlete. So, it’s kind of what we needed and he’s been hurt and hasn’t been able to compete as much and doesn’t know necessarily everything we’re doing out there to be honest, but it just seems like that’s kind of what the doctor ordered for this team.”
Virginia would lead 19-16 with 12:00 to go in the half. Ishan Sharma and Isaac McKneely each had six points for the Cavaliers while Donavin Young had five points for the Cardinal. Virginia had made seven of their last eight field goal attempts while Stanford had made four of their last five.
Stanford would soon take the lead 23-22 with 7:53 to go in the half. Sellers was up to eight points for the Cardinal on 3-5 shooting from the field. Stanford was doing a nice job on the glass with a +3 rebounding advantage.
“So, we have this thing called ‘The Card Zone’,” Raynaud said of their rebounding. “It’s a little section our coach does during the game review. And yeah, he mentioned that he wanted us to be plus five on the offensive boards…He just wanted us to be up a lot on the offensive rebounds and also boxing out because we knew outside of their five men not a lot of people were gonna crash and they were just gonna go back on defense.
“So yeah, it’s a very physical game, they have a ton of pride, they’re a really good team, so I’ll just say boxing out and crashing the boards is something that helps us. So yeah, I think it’s an emphasis every time. Today we did a really good job at it and hopefully we can keep that up for next week.”
Stanford would continue to extend the lead as they were up 27-22 with 6:32 to go in the half after Chisom Okpara had a nice pass to Maxime Raynaud for a vicious two-handed jam. Raynaud was hanging on the rim afterwards like he was Spider-Man.
Stanford would lead 35-30 with 1:21 to go in the half after a huge 3-pointer by Agarwal. He was up to seven points and three rebounds on 3-6 shooting from the field.
Stanford would lead 40-30 at halftime after Jaylen Blakes had a steal and 3-pointer to beat the buzzer. That gave the Cardinal a lot of momentum as they headed into the locker room. Raynaud was up to 10 points and five rebounds for the Cardinal while McKneely had nine points for the Cavaliers.
“It’s surreal,” Raynaud said of Blakes’ buzzer beater. “It’s really surreal. I think you all saw it, was just like, running straight to the tunnel. That’s the kind of thing that is just like give you so much energy. We always talk about finishing the last four minutes of the first half and starting the first three minutes of the second half really strong and I think that was the best thing that could happen, right? Like, he got a steal, kind of got out on a fast break, got that three, and yeah, just like galvanized us a lot and yeah, that was tough as hell.”
“I think the way we ended the first half kind of spilled over into the second half,” Virginia head coach Ron Sanchez said. “We had the ball, last possession, ended up having a potential for a layup. It was a turnover and they hit a three-point shot to end the half to go up I think seven instead of being up four or five. Whatever, I can’t remember exactly. I think that spilled over into the second half.”
Stanford got off to a good start in the second half, leading 52-41 with 15:29 to go. Donavin Young was up to eight points after a nasty throw down, doing a nice job in his first career start. Raynaud was leading the way with 14 points and seven rebounds. The Cardinal continued to have the momentum.
Stanford continued to gain separation from Virginia as they led 62-45 with 11:37 to go. Sellers was up to 13 points on 5-9 shooting from the field and 3-4 shooting from 3-point range. He was in a nice groove for the Cardinal. Stanford was a perfect 10-10 at the foul line up to this point while Virginia hadn’t made a field goal in the last 3:34.
With 7:49 to go, Stanford led 72-55. Raynaud was nearing a double- double with 16 points and nine rebounds. Both teams were trading baskets, which for Stanford was totally fine.
Virginia would then go on a 7-0 run to make it 72-62 with 6:11 to go. Stanford called for time, hoping to regroup. The timeout worked for Stanford as they did indeed regroup, leading 78-63 with 3:37 to go. Right when Virginia looked like they might make the game interesting, Raynaud took over as he was now up to 22 points and 10 rebounds. He had a nice hook shot and reverse layup inside.
From there, Stanford would win by a final score of 88-65 as a throw down by Jaylen Thompson at the very end was the exclamation mark. Stanford proved to be the better team and did a nice job of finishing the game out the right way.
“It was over two people,” Raynaud said of Thompson’s dunk. “It was over two people, like do we realize that?”
One thing that was cool was Cole Kastner getting a chance to get a couple of minutes against his alma mater where he excelled as a lacrosse player. Kastner had a great career at Virginia and won a national title. Before that he played high school basketball at Menlo School, so he had a nice little section of fans cheering him on when he entered the game.
“His attitude is phenomenal,” Smith said of Kastner. “Obviously he was a captain on a national championship program at Virginia as lacrosse and I don’t care what sport you’re playing, that’s significant and I think there’s 50 guys on that team and he’d separate himself as that kind of leader and that’s so healthy for this program. What we need is like he just knows how to behave what winning behaviors. I can’t think of one instant where I’ve ever had to correct him on anything. Other than technique or something, but as far as attitude and he’s just a winner. It was neat to get him in there and I don’t know how you feel, he might have been, that’s his alma mater. I don’t know if he wanted to get a bucket or not, but it was I’m sure it was nice. He likes winning. He’s been an awesome asset.”
“What you need to know about Cole is that he’s the boy,” Raynaud added. “He is, I think the kind of guy anyone would want on his team. We need to understand that this guy is like a three-time All-American, national champion in lacrosse, probably Hall of Famer at Virginia, which is a crazy program for lacrosse. He comes in every day, does his job on scout team, comes in with insane energy, is the best team player you can ever think of, never complains. Like, that level of humility is off the charts. So I think as a person off the court this guy is like the funniest person ever.
"So, it’s so awesome to have him with us and on top of that his high school basketball coaches and the team were there, too. So I’m super super happy for him that he got to go into the game and I’m super happy for the people in Maples to realize that he’s a big part of our organization and it’s not just about the five guys that are on the court, it’s about everybody on the bench…I was really really happy for him and it seemed like he had a blast.”
For Stanford, this is a nice win. While they were favored to win, they won even more convincingly than expected. Raynaud was fantastic as usual and then just in general, they played really sound, winning basketball. This was probably the best Stanford has looked all season long if you just look at how well they played for the full 40 minutes. A lot of different guys stepped up, including Aidan Cammann, whose nine points and three rebounds off the bench were really crucial to ensuring a comfortable victory.
“Yeah, in a key section, he was really good on the pick and roll,” Smith said of Cammann. “We run a lot of stuff for him, through him, because he’s got a really good brain, too. Those two both have really good feel and he was tough. We ran a little out of bounds play for him, he got a bucket there, and then I think he got two rolls, an and-1 and just a smart player doing smart things.”
Up next for Stanford is a road trip to Wake Forest and North Carolina. Up first will be Wake Forest on Wednesday, January 15th. Tipoff is set for 3:30 PM PT on ESPNews.
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