TEMPE, Ariz. - Shaquielle McKissic scored a career-high 23 points and Arizona State overcame second-half foul trouble by its two big men to hold off Stanford 67-62 Thursday night.
Stanford (18-11, 9-8 Pac-12) trailed 37-23 at halftime but stormed back to tie the game at 47-47 with 10:38 left following a three-pointer from Anthony Brown.
However, the Cardinal, which lost Michael Humphrey with a sprained left ankle four minutes into the game, was unable to take the lead despite creeping to within one point on two occasions.
Arizona State (16-14, 8-9 Pac-12) closed the first half on a 16-2 run, but allowed the Cardinal back in it after big men Eric Jacobsen and Savon Goodman ran into foul trouble.
Even without the two big guys, the Sun Devils outscored the Cardinal 40-22 inside by taking the ball to the rim against Stanford's zone. Arizona State kept the Cardinal at bay by weathering a second-half comeback and hitting 5-7 free throws in the final 31 seconds.
Tra Holder added 15 points and four assists for Arizona State, which won despite shooting 3-15 from 3-point range.
Stanford, which has battled injuries throughout the season, fought its way back after getting Arizona State into foul trouble, but ran out of gas.
Chasson Randle overcame a quiet first half to finish with 16 points and Stefan Nastic added 16 for Stanford.
Stanford rolled over Arizona State at home in the teams' first meeting, shooting 59 percent in the 89-70 win, but wasn't nearly as efficient in a choppy first half filled with fouls and turnovers.
The Cardinal missed 11 of its first 15 shots, though kept the Sun Devils within reach in the opening 10 minutes by snaring seven offensive rebounds.
Arizona State started slow, but closed with a flourish, scoring the final 12 points for a 37-23 lead. The Sun Devils hit 14 of 26 shots, highlighted by McKissic's blind, over-the-shoulder toss to the basket for three-point play in transition during the big run. His free throw also got a nice bounce off the rim before going in.
Stanford failed to score over the final 3:26 and shot 8 of 27 before halftime. The Cardinal had a better offense flow in the second half and started to chip away as Arizona State got into foul trouble.
Goodman and Jacobsen, Arizona State's two main inside threats, picked up their third fouls in the opening two minutes. They returned about five minutes later and quickly were called for their fourth fouls.
The Cardinal took advantage and tied the game at 47-all on a 3-pointer by Brown in front of their bench.
Randle hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 80 seconds after Arizona State went up 60-54, but Arizona State hit just enough free throws to keep the Cardinal from coming all the way back.
- - - - - - -
NOTES: Stanford has won seven of its last 10 against Arizona State … The Cardinal has trailed at intermission in eight of its last nine games and hasn't shot better than 39.3 percent over the game's first 20 minutes since converting 45.2 percent against Washington State on Jan. 31 … Chasson Randle (2,209 career points) is now 128 points away from becoming Stanford's all-time leading scorer. Randle's consecutive free throw streak ended at 25 in a row before misfiring on his second attempt with 13:46 remaining. Randle has notched three streaks of 20+ made free throws this season … Reid Travis grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, pacing Stanford's 36-29 advantage on the boards … Over his last five games, Stefan Nastic is 32-39 (82.1 percent) from the foul line … Stanford committed 17 turnovers. The Cardinal entered the night averaging only 10.5 miscues, tops in the Pac-12 and the 20th-fewest total in the nation … Stanford next visits No. 5/6 Arizona on Saturday at 1 p.m. PT on CBS in the final game of the regular season. The Cardinal is making its first regular-season appearance on CBS since Jan. 22, 2011 at UCLA. Stanford is 11-18 all-time against top-25 teams under head coach Johnny Dawkins.
- - - - - - -
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
“You hate to see a young man with any team go down the way he did. Hopefully it's not a severe injury. We've grown accustomed to him impacting the game on both ends of the court for us with his shot blocking, as well as his ability to score. It's a tough blow and it came at an inopportune time for us.”
“We're just trying to get our rotations down. We're finally getting everybody back and now Michael may be out. We're bringing Rosco (Allen) back in there, he was playing so well before he left so we're trying to re-insert him. Reid (Travis) was doing the same thing before he got hurt so we're trying to re-insert him and now Michael is back out again. So we're trying to get our chemistry and continuity back that we had before these guys all started missing some games.”
“Arizona is a good team, but all of the Pac-12 is. There are terrific teams all across this entire conference and we're going to face another good one on Saturday.”
Arizona State Head Coach Herb Sendek
“I am as proud of our team's effort tonight as I have been all season. I thought our defense in the first half was terrific, notwithstanding the second chance shots we gave up. I thought our poise and composure was equally outstanding in the second half. Stanford closed the gap on us, and we got some key defensive stops down the home stretch. I thought Shaq really leas the way offensively for us. In a game that wasn't always pretty, I really admired our team's toughness, competitive spirit, and passion.”
“We played hard tonight and beat a really good team. That is a talented basketball team and that is a heck of a win for us tonight. They have three prolific scorers. Those guys can single-handily dismantle a defense one at a time. They command tremendous respect and attention. We weren't going into a game were we would outscore them. We had to rely heavily on defense. I think for the most part we did that better the first half then we did in the second half.”
“We were in immediate and serious foul trouble. We committed five fouls by the first media timeout. Savon and Eric were in terrible foul trouble from the very beginning. We even had to play Willie at five and obviously that is not his position, and that is not in our favor.”
