BERKELEY — Maxime Raynaud noticed a trend emerging during his first three years down on the farm. Cal defended home court when Stanford traveled to Berkeley; Stanford did the same when Cal visited Palo Alto. Before Raynaud’s collegiate career ended, he wanted to know the feeling of stealing a win in Bear Territory.
“I told the guys before the game, in the three years that I’ve been here, we won our three games at home and they won their three games here,” Raynaud said. “I wanted to win in this building really bad.”
Raynaud, a senior, can leave the college game knowing the satisfaction of silencing Haas Pavilion. Behind Raynaud’s 20 points, four 3-pointers and five blocks, the Cardinals staved off a late comeback effort from the Bears to win, 89-81, in Berkeley Saturday afternoon.
“That was our best game of the year by far,” said Stanford head coach Kyle Smith. “We knew that Cal was going to be really tough as far as being able to keep those guys in front of us defensively. They were relentless. (We tried) keeping them off the glass and we didn’t, but we were able to execute well offensively.”
Along with Raynaud, graduate guard Jaylen Blakes matched Raynaud’s team-high 20 points and dished out six assists — one more than Cal’s team total. Oziyah Sellers, who was born in Hayward and attended Prolific Prep, contributed 16 points, four rebounds and two assists.
Andrej Stojakovic, who transferred to Cal from Stanford, had a game-high 25 points but took a career-high 25 shots. The sophomore took accountability for the loss, noting that he wasn’t “a better leader for my teammates going into the game.”
“I can take the blame for some of the loss today because of my approach,” Stojakovic said. “Individually, I was very pumped up. Not just that I was playing my old team, but because it was the first ACC game for this program. I don’t want to blame the mistakes I made on me being too excited or me having too much energy, but it’s how the game goes.”
Cal head coach Mark Madsen could understand Stojakovic’s aggression, labeling the trait as “the thing that makes Andrej so great” — even if there is still room to grow. What Madsen could not accept was the Bears’ lack of assists. Not only did Cal finish with a season-low five assists, but the team didn’t register a single assist in the first half.
“No assists in the first half is absolutely unacceptable,” Madsen said. “That was my message to the team at halftime. I don’t know if I’ve ever played in a game where you have zero assists in any half.”
Stanford took early control, opening up the ballgame on a 14-4 run over the game’s first five minutes. Cal gradually found its groove on offense, finally tying the game back up at 29 apiece with a little under five minutes remaining before halftime. But the Cardinal proceeded to close out the half on an 18-2 run.
The Cardinal held control for much of the second half, leading by as many as 20 points, but the Bears cut the deficit to as little as six points with 1 1/2 minutes remaining in regulation. While collective thoughts of a comeback began to form, Stanford made enough plays down the stretch to ice the ballgame and win its first conference matchup in the ACC.
“Right after we tied the game, I believe it was an 18-2 run. That’s just back of the envelope (math) without having dissected the film,” Madsen said. “That can’t happen. That cannot happen. It’s consistency on both sides of the ball that will help us get better in those situations.”
