Stanford and its freshmen got off to a great start in Pac-10 men's basketball play as the Cardinal beat Cal 82-68 Sunday evening at Stanford in the conference opener for both teams.
Stanford won despite getting very little from Josh Owens, its No. 2 scorer and top rebounder. Owens had foul trouble almost from the start, and he did not have a point or rebound in the first half and did not score his first point until less than 11 minutes remained in the game.
But freshman Dwight Powell gave Stanford some outstanding minutes in Owens’ place. He had a season-high 20 points and seven rebounds, and his alley-oop dunk off a Jarrett Mann feed with 14:25 left in the game gave him 11 points and gave Stanford a nine-point lead.
In fact, all three of Stanford’s prime freshmen contributed, as Anthony Brown (11 points) and Aaron Bright (10 points) also had their moments. Junior Jeremy Green had 21 points for Stanford, despite the fact that Cal played a box-and-one defenseon Green for a while.
One of Cal’s freshmen, Gary Franklin, was productive. He came off the bench Sunday, but still scored 15 points, hitting 4 of 5 three-point attempts. Harper Kamp also had 16 for Cal (7-6).
But the second half belonged to Stanford (8-4).
The lead grew to 11 points when freshman Anthony Brown nailed a three-pointer at the 11:13 mark and it was a 56-43 game when Owens scored his first points with 10:43 to go.
Stanford increased the margin to 16 points on Bright’s three-pointer with 8:26 left in the game. Stanford’s biggest lead was 17 points with just under six minutes left.
Both teams used a new starting point guard in their previous game, and both kept that player in the starting lineup on Sunday. It worked out better for Stanford than Cal, though.
Sophomore Brandon Smith made his second straight start as Cal’s point guard, moving Jorge Gutierrez over to the off-guard spot again But Smith was removed quickly after committing two early turnovers, and Gutierrez ran the point most of the half.
Freshman Aaron Bright made his second straight start as Stanford’s point guard, and he had more success and played most of the first half. Like Cal, Stanford’s previous starting point guard (Jarrett Mann) remained in the starting lineup as the off-guard.
Jeremy Green was the Cardinal’s leading scorer in the first half with 14 points, helping the Cardinal to a 38-34 halftime lead.
Harper Kamp had 10 points for Cal in the first 20 minutes.
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