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Thursday, Feb. 10 10:30pm ET
Stanford thwarts Oregon's upset bid | |||||
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BOX SCORE
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Oregon had just scored six straight points to pull within six early in the second half. Ryan Mendez and No. 2 Stanford made sure the Ducks (unranked ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) didn't get any closer. Mendez hit 3-pointers at the beginning and end of a 19-6 run, and the Cardinal maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the game in a 76-61 win over No. 24 Oregon on Thursday night. "They had some momentum going for them until Mendez made those points," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "That (first) 3-pointer he made stopped Oregon from making a big run on us." Casey Jacobsen and Mark Madsen each had 19 points, and Mendez added 14 for the Cardinal (20-1, 9-1 Pac-10), who turned yet another high-powered offense into a mess of missed shots and lost opportunities. Oregon (16-5, 7-3) entered the game shooting 49 percent, 11th-best in the nation. But the Ducks were held to 36 percent from the field by Stanford, which holds opponents to the lowest shooting percentage in the nation. "Stanford plays like a No. 2 team. They're so smart as a basketball team," Oregon coach Ernie Kent said. "There were some times in the game we thought we could get them, and we played like it. But as soon as we made a mistake, they capitalized on it and stopped us cold." Stanford, which has won eight straight against Oregon, had eight blocked shots -- including four by Jason Collins -- despite the absence of its top shot blocker. The Cardinal were missing reserve center Curtis Borchardt, who needs one block to tie the Stanford freshman record of 43 set by Tim Young in 1994-95. Borchardt is out indefinitely with a stress reaction in his right foot, a problem he aggravated last weekend. He'll also miss Saturday's game against Oregon State. Alex Scales had 14 points and eight rebounds to lead Oregon. But A.D. Smith, the Ducks' leading scorer with 15.7 points per game, was held to two points in the second half and 11 overall. Smith said Madsen, who led Stanford with 10 rebounds, seems to always be in the right position on the court. "No one is stronger than he is," Smith said. "There's not one thing he dominates on. He sees shots and he sees rebounds and goes for them." The Cardinal, who have won 20 games for a school-record sixth straight season, got their first victory against a ranked team since a 67-58 win over No. 2 Auburn in late November. Stanford had played only one other ranked school since then, a 68-65 home loss to No. 5 Arizona in early January. Kent said Stanford's tough defense is a mixture of many elements. "They move so quickly, you have a hard time positioning yourself to get a rebound. You have no opportunity for second shots," he said. "They're great at rebounding, but really it's their offense. The way they play offense makes their defense better -- you're so tired from defending them." | ALSO SEE Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
AUDIO/VIDEO   Mark Madsen follows his own shot and makes the impossible putback.avi: 906 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 David Moseley's 3 was a dagger to Oregon's hopes.avi: 734 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Alex Scales steals the ball and finishes with the slam.avi: 543 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||