The Stanford Cardinal entered Wednesday evening’s College Basketball
Invitational Semifinal matchup with the Oregon State Beavers facing a very
familiar opponent, a team they had faced three times thus far during the 2008-09
season. The third time was the charm for Stanford as they finally took
down the team from Corvallis in the Pac-10 Tournament Opening Round,
62-54. Would the fourth time also lead to advancement for the Cardinal in
postseason play or could the Beavers gain entry into the CBI’s Championship
Series versus the University of Texas-El Paso Miners, 81-69 winners at the
Richmond Spiders earlier this evening? A back-and-forth game
needed extra time to settle a winner, but unfortunately for Stanford fans,
Oregon State finished the extra session on a 9-1 run to end the Cardinal’s
season, taking the fourth meeting between the conference foes by a final score
of 65-62 in overtime. Stanford finishes the season at 20-14 while Oregon
State runs its record to 16-17 for the year.
The first half began with Oregon State getting three tries at a basket after
an airball from Roeland Schaftenaar, but the Beavers got a steal from their big
man, along with an offensive rebound, to get the first two of the evening.
The Cardinal countered with an Anthony Goods three-pointer from the left wing
that was pure as gold. Stanford would go up 10-7 after a long Landry Fields right-wing basket, but Schaftenaar countered with his own long ball from
the top of the key to knot the score up at 10-10 right before the first media
timeout of the evening.
Out of the break, the Cardinal changed up their defense to a zone, which OSU
promptly beat as they got a left-wing three-ball from Lathen Wallace.
However, the next couple of minutes saw the Beavers miss a few shots while
Jeremy Green found an opening versus the Oregon State 1-3-1 zone and hit a long
left-corner three-pointer to bump Stanford back ahead, 15-13, with 12:22 left in
the first half. Lawrence Hill came out of the next media timeout and hit
his own three-pointer, this one from the right-wing, to extend the lead to
five. The Cardinal would get the lead up to six before the Beavers went on
a 7-0 run to seize the lead back from Stanford, capped by a bank shot by
Schaftenaar inside the paint over Goods.
Kenny Brown, though, hit a long two from the left side to stop the bleeding,
out of the under eight-minute media timeout. After the shot by Brown, both
teams had a hard time putting the ball in the hole, going nearly four minutes
each without a field goal. Only a Fields free throw did anything to put a
tally on the scoreboard. A Hill offensive rebound and short jumper in the
lane ended the Stanford drought, but Oregon State was bound to end theirs and
they did with a Wallace layup after a missed dunk attempt by Omari Johnson. After a pretty feed from Schaftenaar to Seth Tarver to tie up the
score, the Cardinal had the last possession, but after a running miss by Goods,
the ball was tapped back out with Mitch Johnson waiting for it to take a last
shot. However, Calvin Haynes came out for the ball as well, tapped it up
and towards his basket. Haynes ran under the ball and put in the last
second layup to give Oregon State the lead going into halftime, 28-26.
As a team, Stanford shot 44% from the field, was 5-10 from the three-point
line, and converted one of their two free throws. Oregon State hit 48% of
their shot attempts, 4-9 from beyond the arc, and did not attempt a free
throw. The Cardinal outrebounded the Beavers 14-13, including 4-3 on the
offensive glass. Stanford dished out five assists, but also gave up the
ball five times, while Oregon State tallied six assists to their five
turnovers. The Beavers had the lead at the half due to their advantage in
the paint, outscoring Stanford 14-6 in the first half.
Individually, the Cardinal was led by Hill’s seven points on 3-4
shooting. Fields had six points and a team-high five boards. Goods
also scored six for Stanford. Oregon State’s leading scorer was
Schaftenaar with seven on 3-5 shooting, followed by five each for Wallace and
Josh Tarver.
The second half started with the Cardinal turning the ball over on their
first offensive possession against a 2-3 zone and Ricky Claitt hit a jumper from
the right side to push the Beavers lead to four to open up the second
half. The Cardinal defense, though, would buckle down, changing between
their own 2-3 zone and man-to-man looks, forcing Oregon State to miss several
looks from around the perimeter. Stanford would take advantage, getting
consecutive hoops from Goods, Hill, and Goods again to grab the edge back,
32-30, with 16 minutes left in the game. An open Drew Shiller
three-pointer from the right corner got the lead up to five, but Stanford’s 9-0
run was stopped by an NBA-range three-pointer from Wallace, cutting the lead
back to two, 35-33, with 13:37 remaining.
Oregon State continued their run with a Johnson putback dunk and a running
layup by Wallace heading into the media timeout. The 8-0 run by Oregon
State was silenced momentarily by a left corner three-pointer by Goods off a
beauty of a cross-court pass by Fields to tie the score back up at 38.
Goods would complete his own 6-0 dash for Stanford with a free throw and a drive
down the lane resulting in a layup and a 41-38 Stanford advantage. A
Claitt layup with time winding down on the shot clock running down stopped the
Cardinal spurt, but Stanford still held a 41-40 as the tired teams went to their
benches at the media timeout with 7:55 to go in the contest.
Both teams traded missed shots, including a Johnson three by Stanford that
rimmed in and out before a Claitt layup with the shot clock at one gave Oregon
State back the lead at 42-41 with 5:18 left in the game. A Hill free throw
would tie the game back up nine seconds later, but Haynes drove the baseline and
got a running layin to put OSU back up two. Hill would get the score back
at even inside the paint with a layup over Schaftenaar, however the big man from
the Netherlands would counter with his patented one-handed shot off the glass to
get Oregon State back the lead, 46-44.
Goods would draw a foul going inside, but he would make just one free
throw. On their next possession, the Beavers got the ball to Wallace and
he scored and was fouled by Jeremy Green inside. The ensuing free throw
gave Oregon State a 49-45 lead with 3:29 left. Goods turned the ball over
the next possession and Seth Tarver made a run inside the lane and got the hoop,
giving the Beavers their biggest lead of the game at six, 51-45 with 2:39
remaining in the game. A sloppy possession after a timeout almost led to
another turnover for Stanford, but Johnson would hit a long two from the right
wing to give Stanford their first field goal in over seven minutes.
Did Stanford have one more run in them?
After Oregon State made one of two free throws, Brown was found wide open for
a three-pointer from the right corner, cutting the lead down to two, 52-50, with
1:50 to go. After Haynes missed a jumper, Fields came open on the right
baseline to tie the game back up at 52-all. Haynes, though, would redeem
himself with a tough jumper after a crossover, nailing the bucket over Hill and
Brown trying to help, putting Oregon State back up two with 15 ticks
remaining. Stanford called timeout with 9.4 left to set up a final shot
and Goods was the man who tried a long left-wing three over Haynes. It
came up short, but Hill came up with a rebound just short of the free throw line
and turned around and tossed up a turnaround jumper with less than a second to
go that rimmed around and in at the buzzer to send the game into overtime!
In overtime, Haynes missed a jumper and Stanford took the lead for the first
time in over 10 minutes of play on a twisting layup by Goods. An offensive
foul by Tarver gave Stanford a chance to push the lead to four and they did
after Josh Owens hit a hook inside the paint. After Wallace hit two free
throws, the Beavers defense lost Fields who took a pass from Johnson nailed a
right-wing three to give Stanford a 61-56 edge with 2:31 left. However,
Oregon State was far from done as Josh Tarver found Schaftenaar for a long three
just left of straightaway to shave the lead down to two for the Beavers.
The Cardinal didn’t react well to the three-pointer as they missed several
chances to get the lead back up and Oregon State fed off the momentum and
eventually got the lead after a Schaftenaar layup with 1:15 left and a Seth
Tarver layup off a great look by Schaftenaar with 28 seconds left. On
their next possession, Goods was fouled with 15 ticks left, but he made just one
of two free throws. Haynes was fouled on the inbounds, but he made just
one of two shots. Goods again was the targeted man for Stanford on their
next opportunity, but he was fouled before he could take a shot with 3.2 seconds
remaining. He would miss the first, but make the second. Haynes was
fouled on the inbounds and he rattled in the first free throw, but missed the
second, giving the Cardinal one final chance. Shiller threw a full-length
pass that Hill gathered with ease inside the paint. He dribbled over to
the right wing to try a three, but he was off the mark. Fields appeared to be
open on the left side, but Hill couldn’t see him in the heat of the moment as
the Cardinal’s last shot of the season was off the mark, ending their run in the
CBI tournament.
As a team, the Cardinal finished the game shooting 44% from the field and 41%
at the three-point line, but was just 5-13 (39%) from the free throw line,
points that would cost them dearly in the end. Oregon State completed the
45 minutes of play making 49% of their field goals, 38% from beyond the arc, and
54% (7-13) at the charity stripe. Both squads finished the game with 33
rebounds, while the Cardinal had 10 offensive rebounds to Oregon State’s
nine. The assist-to-turnover ratio for both teams was nearly identical as
Stanford finished with 10 assists and 11 turnovers while Oregon State had 10
assists and 10 turnovers. Oregon State outscored Stanford in the paint
34-20, an advantage they enjoyed and exploited throughout the highly-contested
battle.
Stanford’s leading scorer for the contest was Goods who had 21 points on 7-15
shooting. Hill closed his career with a double-double, netting 14 points
on 6-10 shooting, while grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds. The only other
Stanford player in double figures was Fields who finished the game with 11
points and eight boards. Johnson’s last game of his career saw the senior
from Washington get four points, five assists, and just two turnovers. The
other senior on the team, “Downtown” Brown, had five points and five
rebounds. Oregon State’s leading scorer was Wallace who had 16 points and
three steals. Schaftenaar tallied 14 points on 6-11 shooting, Haynes had
10 off the bench, and Seth Tarver had eight for the winners.
Although Stanford did not get a chance to finish off its season with a CBI
championship, they showed fans that they were not willing to just sleepwalk
through the postseason, a postseason some may not have wanted to see the
Cardinal participate in when their spot in the tournament was announced.
However, head coach Johnny Dawkins and his team gave a great effort, gaining
some more experience for the younger player and a last chance of success for the
seniors. Whether or not this helps the Cardinal in 2009-10, we won’t know
that answer for a while, but we at the Bootleg would like to thank the team for
their efforts this season and wish our seniors well in their post-Stanford
careers, whether they involve basketball or not.
Make sure to stay tuned to the Bootleg over the coming months as we cover the
program’s offseason moves and get you ready for next season. Until then,
take care everybody!
Stanford-Oregon State Box Score
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