Hot Stanford wins its 4th straight game
Heading into a key game in the Pac-10, Stanford is rolling and Washington State is recovering from its first home loss of the season.
The 14th-ranked Cardinal won their fourth straight game Thursday night. Led by Brook Lopez's career-high 31 points, they bullied Washington in a 65-51 victory.
While Stanford was winning in Seattle for the first time since January 2001, No. 9 Washington State was losing a close one in Pullman to California. Ryan Anderson, the Pac-10's leading scorer, had 27 points and the Bears hung on to beat the Cougars 69-64.
The Cardinal (17-3, 6-2), alone in second and a game behind first-place UCLA in the Pac-10, visit third-place Washington State (17-3, 5-3) Saturday.
Washington State star Derrick Low had two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds against Cal that could have tied the score, but the final one rimmed out with a tick left on the clock.
It was a fitting end for the Cougars. Low was 2-for-11 from the field and missed all nine of his 3-point attempts. He finished with five points.
Daven Harmeling made only one of five 3-pointers and the Cougars finished 5-for-20 from 3-point range.
Patrick Christopher added 16 points for Cal (12-7, 3-5), which broke a three-game losing streak and finally won the type of close it has been losing all season.
Stanford's star was at the top of his game against Washington.
Lopez, a 7-foot sophomore, made 11 of 17 shots and entered Thursday averaging 17.8 points.
Quincy Pondexter scored 15 points and Jon Brockman had 13 points and 13 rebounds for outmanned Washington (12-9, 3-5).
At Durham, N.C., Greg Paulus scored 22 points, including a burst of three 3-pointers early in the second half, to help Duke rally then cruise to a win.Freshman Kyle Singler added 19 points for the Blue Devils (18-1, 6-0 Atlantic Coast Conference).Gavin Grant scored 26 points for the Wolfpack (13-7, 2-4).
At Chapel Hill, N.C., Tyler Hansbrough scored 18 points, Deon Thompson added a career-high 17 and North Carolina routed Boston College.Ty Lawson scored 16 points, Wayne Ellington finished with 14 and Marcus Ginyard added 10 for the Tar Heels (20-1, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who had all five starters reach double figures for the first time this season.BC's Tyrese Rice equaled his average with 20 points, but he was 6-for-15 from the field and 1-for-9 from 3-point range for the Eagles (12-7, 3-3), who lost their third straight game.
At Los Angeles, Josh Shipp broke out of a brief shooting slump with 21 points, freshman Kevin Love had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and UCLA handed Arizona State its fourth straight loss.
At Madison, Wis., Trevon Hughes scored 16 points, Marcus Landry had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Wisconsin held off a rally, led by Indiana's D.J. White and freshman Eric Gordon.White had his way with Wisconsin (17-3, 7-1 Big Ten) most of the game, finishing with 22 points and 17 rebounds. But Wisconsin's Michael Flowers, who scored 10 points, mostly contained Gordon, who was wearing a padded foam splint on his left wrist.Gordon finished with 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
