Stanford men’s basketball won its road-opener in dramatic fashion on Saturday night, overturning a 10-point half-time deficit to beat Santa Clara, converting the go-ahead basket with just two seconds remaining.
The Cardinal were aided by the durability of senior forward Maxime Raynaud, junior guard Oziyah Sellers and graduate guard Jaylen Blakes, as the trio each played more than 35 minutes and contributed to the bulk of the scoring.
Stanford began the night as a slight underdog as it faced the challenge of replicating its stellar start-of-season form at Maples in its first road contest. Despite the short journey over from campus, the Cardinal started sluggishly, with turnovers on three consecutive offensive possessions to start the game, two of which were committed by the usually dependable Raynaud. The Broncos secured a 6-0 lead as a result but — in response — junior forward Chisom Okpara maneuvered under the basket and scored while being fouled to put Stanford on the board.
The Cardinal remained within touching distance of Santa Clara for the duration of the first half. With two minutes left in the period, though, the Broncos had grown its lead to 11 and threatened to run away with the game. Instead, Blakes produced a great play, intercepting a pass on the edge of the key and running across the court uncontested to slam the ball home. Though Stanford trailed 37-27 at the interval, Blakes’ play was critical to stealing back some momentum from the Broncos, who committed a foul and a turnover in successive possessions after Blakes’ dunk.
Stanford exploded out of the gates in the second half with a 12-0 run to take the lead, helped by consecutive triples, a marked improvement after going just 1-7 from behind the arc in the first half. Raynaud was instrumental to the turnaround, showcasing his versatility by securing an assist, a steal, a three-pointer and both offensive and defensive rebounds throughout the run.
Neither side had a lead greater than six points for the next 10 minutes — such was the closeness of the game. A foul by redshirt freshman forward Aidan Cammann within six minutes and the subsequent free throws scored by the Broncos stretched their lead to eight. It seemed as if Stanford had expended too much energy to get back into the game and that the initial deficit would ultimately be insurmountable. However, a timeout at 3:25 proved decisive, as head coach Kyle Smith successfully galvanized his squad to an improbable victory.
After the timeout, Sellers put the team on his back with two three-pointers on either side of a dunk. All three baskets were assisted by Blakes, extending his streak of assisting six consecutive Stanford baskets. The slam capped a great team defensive sequence, as redshirt sophomore guard Ryan Agarwal patiently prevented his man from shooting, Raynaud and Cammann helped knock the ball loose, and Blakes corralled it and fed Sellers downcourt.
After Sellers had tied the game, Stanford was given the opportunity to seal the comeback after a missed free throw by Santa Clara. However, uncharacteristic misses by Blakes from the line and Raynaud from the paint left Stanford with a precarious one-point lead to defend with just 20 seconds remaining. With eight seconds left, Sellers committed a foul, but once more, the Broncos could not capitalize, scoring just one of two to take the game to the brink of overtime.
Blakes, however, had other ideas. He received the ball from the inbound, dribbled purposefully towards the basket, cut to the right edge of the elbow and sunk a floataway jumper. With two seconds left, the Broncos’ desperate in-bound throw fell to the Cardinal and time expired to complete a memorable comeback.
Stanford’s 71-69 win was its closest of the year thus far. It will look to build upon this positive road result at the Acrisure Holiday Classic in Palm Desert on Tuesday, where it will battle against Grand Canyon University.
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