No. 17 Ariz. St. hands Stanford its 1st defeat
STANFORD, Calif. — The big question about Stanford heading into the Pac-10 opener was whether it was better to describe the Cardinal as unbeaten or untested.
Jeff Pendergraph and Arizona State took little time putting that question to rest.
Pendergraph scored 21 of his career-high 31 points on a variety of dunks and layups in the first half and No. 17 Arizona State handed Stanford its first loss of the season, 90-60 Friday night in the conference opener for both teams.
"We came out pretty intense today," Pendergraph said. "We knew we would face a really good Stanford team. They were undefeated. You don't go 10 games without losing for no reason. We knew this was going to be a big-time game. We knew we would have to step up our intensity."
The Cardinal (10-1) came into the game as one of six unbeaten teams remaining in Division I, but their soft nonconference schedule raised questions about how good they really were.
Facing their first ranked opponent of the season, the Cardinal couldn't handle the step up in competition and suffered their most lopsided loss ever in the series and biggest Pac-10 loss since a 90-58 defeat to Arizona in 1998.
That leaves No. 1 North Carolina, No. 3 Pittsburgh, No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 20 Clemson and Illinois State as the only undefeated teams.
"That was a team tragedy," said Lawrence Hill, who led Stanford with 14 points. "We've been putting on a front. We put on a swagger like we're going to be a good team but that's not going to happen if we don't play Stanford basketball."
No. 8 Texas 78, Appalachian State 43
Dexter Pittman set career highs with 21 points and 11 rebounds, leading Texas past visiting Appalachian State.
Pittman scored the final seven Texas points of the first half and the first six of the second half as the Longhorns (11-2) went on a 19-2 run to take a 44-23 lead with 14:58 left in the game.
No. 12 UCLA 69, Oregon State 46
At Corvallis, Ore., Darren Collison and Michael Roll each scored 16 points, and UCLA beat Oregon State in the Pac-10 opener for both teams.
Drew Gordon added 11 points for the Bruins (11-2), the defending regular-season conference champions. UCLA has won seven straight games.
No. 13 Syracuse 59, South Florida 54
At Tampa, Fla., Jonny Flynn made a key jumper with 2 minutes to go and Eric Devendorf hit two free throws in the closing seconds, helping Syracuse hold off South Florida.
Andy Rautins scored 14 points and Arinze Onuaku added 13 for the Orange (14-1, 2-0 Big East), who led by 16 at halftime but struggled to put the game away.
South Carolina 85, No. 19 Baylor 84
At Waco, Texas, Zam Fredrick hit a go-ahead layup with 5.1 seconds left and South Carolina rallied to top Baylor.
