Michael O’Connell scored a career-high 22 points and Spencer Jones scored all 18 of his points in the second half to power the hot-shooting Stanford Cardinals to an 88-79 upset of the visiting No. 4 Arizona Wildcats on Saturday night.
The Cardinal (11-14, 5-9 Pac-12) shot 61.1 percent from the field, including 10 of 18 3-point attempts to snap a seven-game winning streak for the Wildcats (22-4, 11-4). Harrison Ingram, one of five Stanford players in double-figure points, provided 12 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Courtney Ramey, a fifth-year transfer from Texas, had his best game at Arizona with 26 points, including making 8 of 16 3-pointers, but his big effort could not offset the quiet production of big men Azuolas Tubelis and Oumar Ballo. Tubelis, leading the Pac-12 in scoring and rebounding, battled foul trouble and finished with four points and no rebounds in 17 minutes.
He and Ballo combine to average about 36 points and 19 rebounds per game, but Stanford crowded the paint, won the rebounding battle (34-26) and held Ballo to eight points and four boards.
The back-and-forth game took a definitive turn with less than five minutes to go.
Brandon Angel’s two free throws with 4:28 left gave the Cardinal a 74-69 lead, and then Ingram’s steal and layup put Stanford up seven just 25 seconds later. O’Connell drained a 3-pointer and later capped an 11-0 run with a free throw to make it 80-69 at the 3:08 mark.
Kerr Kriisa’s four-point play with 1:31 left cut Arizona’s deficit to 83-77. After a steal, the Wildcats could have made it a one-possession game but Kriisa missed two 3-point attempts. Stanford closed the door with a 5-0 run and beat Arizona at home for the first time since Jan. 4, 2009.
Other double-figure scorers for Stanford were Angel (14) and Maxime Raynaud (13).
Arizona led 44-35 late in the first half, but Stanford scored six points in the final minute to make it 44-41 at halftime.
–Field Level Media
