No. 7 Stanford, one of the surprising teams in the country, looks for its season-high eighth consecutive win tonight as the Pac-10 co-leading Cardinal (20-3, 9-2) travel to Tempe, Ariz., to face Arizona State (15-7, 5-5).
Stanford is coming off a sweep of the Oregon schools at home for the 15th straight season. The Cardinal were also able to jump into a tie for the lead in the Pac-10, after UCLA lost on Sunday, and they have reached the 20-win plateau for the first time in four
years.
Stanford's success this season can really be traced to its last meeting with ASU. The Cardinal were down 10 points at the half to the Sun Devils on Jan. 19 and had been held to 20 points, their weakest first-half output of the season.
But a heated halftime and accusations of the team not playing with passion got the ball rolling for Stanford.
"We came together and said, 'Enough's enough,' " senior Taj Finger said. "We're fighting for the Pac-10 championship here, and we're down 10 at home. We've got to get it going right now."
"It got pretty crazy," said point guard and captain Mitch Johnson,. "At certain times, we probably didn't even understand what people were saying."
Stanford then outscored Arizona State 47-22 in the second half to win 67-52 and has not looked back.
That victory ended the Sun Devils' 10-game winning streak and sent them into a tailspin. They dropped five straight and fell out of the Top 25 two weeks after they had entered the rankings for the first time since 1994-95.The Cardinal, meanwhile, have shot from unranked prior to Jan. 21 to a top 10 team after seven consecutive victories. They haven't won eight straight since beginning the 2003-04 season 26-0.
Stanford has won 11 of its past 12 games at Arizona State, but four of its five most recent victories there have been by single digits. The Cardinal have won 18 of the last 20 meetings with Arizona State overall.
Brook Lopez is averaging 18.1 points and 7.9 rebounds for the Cardinal to lead the way. He had 19 points and 16 rebounds in that earlier win against Arizona State. (NCAA basketball Injury Report)
There's a chance the Cardinal could be without junior guard Anthony Goods tonight. He has a sore lower back and might not be available, Coach Trent Johnson said.
The problem affected Goods' mobility last Thursday against Oregon and Saturday against Oregon State and has kept him from practicing this week.
"I'm a little concerned," Johnson said. "He was favoring it a little on Thursday and then Saturday he sort of struggled."
Goods, the Cardinal's second-leading scorer at 11.2 points per game, believes he'll be all right to play. There is "nothing structurally wrong," he said.
ASU snapped a five-game losing streak on Sunday with a 59-54 victory at Arizona to complete its first season sweep of the Wildcats since the 1994-95 season. Jeff Pendergraph led the way with a career-high 29 points.
Freshman guard James Harden leads Arizona State at 18.1 points per game, but he scored a season-low five against Arizona.
No comments:
Post a Comment