Males’s basketball swats Sac State Hornets 91-73

Stanford males’s basketball (2-0, 0-0 Pac-12) left Maples Pavilion with a 91-73 win in opposition to Sacramento State (0-2, 0-0 Massive Sky) on Friday night. A recreation of unbelievable performs hinted at a doubtlessly robust season for the group.

The Cardinal gained tip-off to start out, and their first make of the sport — shot from the perimeter — got here from none aside from fifth-year ahead Spencer Jones. After a tough efficiency at three in opposition to Cal State Northridge, Jones was again in his former stride as an elite perimeter shooter, capturing three of 4 from deep for the sport.

Regardless of sustaining only a small lead over the Hornets by way of the half, the Cardinal confirmed how potent their offense might be.

Sac State tried to shut the hole, however a steal from sophomore guard Benny Gealer stole the group’s consideration as he ran the court docket for a layup — the primary fast-break factors of the sport.

Pictures by Jones, freshman guard Andrej Stojaković, graduate pupil guard Jared Bynum and graduate pupil ahead James Keefe stored the rating in favor of the Cardinal.

With 4 minutes left within the half, the sport noticed its first dunk by senior ahead Brandon Angel. The Card continued to remain forward to the buzzer, and a dunk by junior ahead Maxime Raynaud scored the ultimate factors for Stanford. The primary half ended with a 47-39 lead for Stanford.

The second half noticed stronger efficiency from Stanford, with 56.25% capturing from the sector. Bynum continued dominating on the court docket, main the group by initiating the offense.

“As a degree guard, [I’m] all the time pushing the tempo, all the time making the reads, all the time discovering the appropriate guys. The coaches give me a whole lot of confidence once I received the ball in my arms to play free and make the choices.” Bynum mentioned.

Early free throws by Jones continued the Card’s 100 proportion. The group maintained a double-digit lead over Sac State with pictures by graduate pupil guard Michael Jones, Spencer Jones and Stojaković. A rebound from Gealer arrange Keefe for the Cardinal’s third dunk of the sport.

A steal by sophomore guard Ryan Agarwal and a layup with 7 minutes left within the recreation added one other two to the Card’s lead. A dunk by Raynaud and a marketing campaign of layups led by Angel shut down the Hornet’s makes an attempt to shut the hole. And at 88-73, with simply seven seconds left within the recreation, senior ahead Max Murrell drained a three-pointer to seal one other win for Stanford: 91-73.

Total, the group’s 55.7% from the sector over Sac State’s 38.2% on a near-equal variety of shot makes an attempt is what led them to victory.

“We had 56 factors within the paint … we had been attending to the basket,” mentioned coach Jerod Haase. “Our mindset was good.”

Stanford set the only recreation program report for help to turnover ratio at 22:4, beating their earlier finest from 2013. Cardinal gamers additionally set plenty of particular person information in opposition to Sac State: Gealer had profession bests of six assists, eight factors and 5 rebounds, whereas Bynum met his profession excessive with 10 assists and only one turnover.

Angel led the Card in scoring with 18 factors, adopted by Spencer Jones with 15 factors and Raynaud’s 14. Stojakovic elevated his contributions from recreation one, with 12 factors on 55% from the sector and 2-of-4 from the perimeter.

The Cardinal appears to be like to finish their remaining season within the Pac-12 robust. “It’s the final yr of the convention and we need to end the convention robust, but it surely’s one recreation at a time and that’s our aim,” Angel mentioned.

Stanford males’s basketball appears to be like to proceed its win streak on Tuesday at a house recreation in opposition to Santa Clara. Tip-off is ready for six p.m. PT.