Keefe Sparks Stanford Past UC Irvine, 70-57

Stanford’s Adam Keefe came home Monday, where he:

--Was honored by having his high school basketball uniform retired at Irvine’s Woodbridge High.

--Was roasted by by UC Irvine basketball fans (“Irvine wasn’t good enough for you, huh?”).

--Was awful in the first half against UCI.

--Was nearly unstoppable in the second, leading the Cardinal to a 70-57 nonconference victory over the Anteaters at the Bren Center.

Not bad for a sophomore.

Keefe scored 20 points, 14 in the second half, and added 11 rebounds.

It was the second consecutive loss for Irvine, which led, 22-12, midway through the first half, and 24-17 with slightly more than five minutes left in the half.

But Stanford pulled to four by halftime and made the score 41-41 on Keefe’s layup with 14:25 to go in the game.

Once again Irvine, which blew an 11-point second-half lead against the University of San Francisco on Saturday, went cold, scoring 12 points in the final 15 minutes.

“We’re supposed to be a good shooting team,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “What happened to our shooting?”

The Anteaters made 38% of their shots from the field, only 32% in the second half.

Irvine made up for its poor shooting with a good job defensively in the first half. Sagging toward the middle against Keefe, Irvine made it hard for the Cardinal to go inside. When Stanford did, many times it resulted in a turnover.

In the second half, Keefe was aggressive inside, scoring 10 points in a 10-minute span.

Rod Palmer led Irvine with 18 points.