After getting off to fast starts vs. Oregon, Clemson, & Pitt, Stanford was sleepwalking through most of the first half tonight. After taking a 4-2 lead 2 minutes into the game, Va Tech ripped off 14 unanswered points over the next 9! minutes. In that 9 minutes, Stanford shot 0-8, had 3 turnovers (all by Okpara), and committed 3 fouls (2 by Blakes). Gotta be one of the worst stretches of basketball I've seen from Stanford in my 50+ years of watching. Tough night for Okpara - back into the starting line-up, but played only 6 minutes, exiting soon after the 3rd TO.
The Big 3 showed some grit and slowly chipped away to cut the halftime deficit to 30-25. In one 2-minute stretch, Blakes made a lay-up off a turnover, assisted on a Raynaud layup, then assisted on 2 straight Sellers 3-pointers. Stanford came out hot in the 2nd half with 4 Blakes free throws and 2 Raynaud 3-pointers in the first 2+ minutes. They got the lead (39-38) with 15 minutes remaining, but couldn't pull away. The game was tied at 56 with 5-1/2 minutes left, before Stanford went on a 9-0 run.
The Big 3 could still use some more help. They scored 55 of the 70 points. The Hokies had a similar issue - 45 of their 59 came from Lawal, Poteat and Burnham (off the bench). Lawal & Poteat did some nice work under the basket, including 4 impressive dunks. Burnham was 4/4 on 3s in the 1st half (the only 3s of the game for Va Tech) and led the Hokies with 18 points. Raynaud had 14 rebounds for another double-double. Blakes had 6 assists and only 1 turnover. Agarwal continues to struggle with his shooting (0/3 on 3s), but chipped in with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Gealer provided some stability when the game could have gotten out of hand. And Donavin Young, in just his 3rd game coming off an injury (and 1st home game), played a solid 23 minutes (including starting the 2nd half), scoring 7 points on 3/5 shooting (1/1 from 3), throwing down an impressive dunk, and getting 3 rebounds.
Stanford outscored the Hokies 27-12 on 3s and 15-3 from the free throw line. Surprisingly to me, Va Tech outscored Stanford in paint 38-20 and in points off turnovers 16-9.
Certainly not the prettiest win, but a win. Basketball is a game of runs, but Stanford's inconsistency continues to be a concern. A 9-minute stretch like they had tonight would be a disaster against an most remaining opponents. But to their credit, they never seemed to panic, continued to play hard, and got back into the game.
UVa coming up on Saturday afternoon. They lost to Cal tonight 75-61 to fall to 8-7(1-3 in the ACC). Jared Haase joined Roxy Bernstein on the ESPN2 telecast - can't wait to see them doing a future Stanford game.
The Big 3 showed some grit and slowly chipped away to cut the halftime deficit to 30-25. In one 2-minute stretch, Blakes made a lay-up off a turnover, assisted on a Raynaud layup, then assisted on 2 straight Sellers 3-pointers. Stanford came out hot in the 2nd half with 4 Blakes free throws and 2 Raynaud 3-pointers in the first 2+ minutes. They got the lead (39-38) with 15 minutes remaining, but couldn't pull away. The game was tied at 56 with 5-1/2 minutes left, before Stanford went on a 9-0 run.
The Big 3 could still use some more help. They scored 55 of the 70 points. The Hokies had a similar issue - 45 of their 59 came from Lawal, Poteat and Burnham (off the bench). Lawal & Poteat did some nice work under the basket, including 4 impressive dunks. Burnham was 4/4 on 3s in the 1st half (the only 3s of the game for Va Tech) and led the Hokies with 18 points. Raynaud had 14 rebounds for another double-double. Blakes had 6 assists and only 1 turnover. Agarwal continues to struggle with his shooting (0/3 on 3s), but chipped in with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Gealer provided some stability when the game could have gotten out of hand. And Donavin Young, in just his 3rd game coming off an injury (and 1st home game), played a solid 23 minutes (including starting the 2nd half), scoring 7 points on 3/5 shooting (1/1 from 3), throwing down an impressive dunk, and getting 3 rebounds.
Stanford outscored the Hokies 27-12 on 3s and 15-3 from the free throw line. Surprisingly to me, Va Tech outscored Stanford in paint 38-20 and in points off turnovers 16-9.
Certainly not the prettiest win, but a win. Basketball is a game of runs, but Stanford's inconsistency continues to be a concern. A 9-minute stretch like they had tonight would be a disaster against an most remaining opponents. But to their credit, they never seemed to panic, continued to play hard, and got back into the game.
UVa coming up on Saturday afternoon. They lost to Cal tonight 75-61 to fall to 8-7(1-3 in the ACC). Jared Haase joined Roxy Bernstein on the ESPN2 telecast - can't wait to see them doing a future Stanford game.