COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Late Rally Helps Stanford Defeat California

Andy Poppink scored a career-high 25 points and Brent Williams added 20 points and 13 rebounds as Stanford defeated 21st-ranked California, 88-79, on Thursday night at Palo Alto.

Stanford, coming off consecutive Pacific 10 Conference losses to Arizona and Arizona State, won despite a triple-double by Cal guard Jason Kidd.

Kidd scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds and 18 assists for his third triple-double this season. His 18 assists are a conference and school record.

Cal, 10-4 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-10 after two consecutive losses, held a 70-69 lead after Lamond Murray made a free throw with 3:44 to play.

But Stanford freshman Brevin Knight made two three-point baskets in the next 1:24, followed by a dazzling rebound and jumper by Poppink with 1:44 remaining.

That gave Stanford (10-4, 3-2) a 78-73 lead.

The Bears pulled within one on a three-point play by Ryan Jamison with 1:09 left, but Dion Cross made another three-point basket for Stanford and Poppink and Knight added four more points as the Cardinal put the Bears away.

Williams scored 14 points and took 10 rebounds as Stanford opened a 45-36 halftime lead.

But Cal ran off a 16-2 scoring spree in a span of 5:10 in the second half to tie the score at 56-56 midway through the period.

The teams stayed within a few points of each other until Stanford’s late rally.

Murray led the Bears with 19 points and 15 rebounds, and Monty Buckley added 17 points.

No. 5 Duke 92, North Carolina State 65--Grant Hill scored 19 points and the Blue Devils (12-1, 4-1) made 77% of their shots in the first half of an Atlantic Coast Conference victory over the Wolfpack (5-9, 1-3) at Raleigh, N.C.

Duke made 20 of its first 26 shots and forced the Wolfpack into 11 first-half turnovers in taking a 44-29 halftime lead. The Blue Devils scored 19 of their points off Wolfpack mistakes.

Duke’s Antonio Lang, who leads the ACC in field-goal percentage, made all seven of his shots and scored 16 points.

No. 6 Massachusetts 76, Rutgers 54--Lou Roe and Mike Williams each scored 17 points to lead the Minutemen (14-2, 6-0) to an Atlantic 10 Conference victory over the Scarlet Knights (5-8, 1-3) at Amherst, Mass.

Waliyy Dixon scored 23 points to lead Rutgers, which trailed by only two points early in the second half.

No. 11 Temple 68, La Salle 55--Derrick Battie scored 17 points to lead the Owls (10-2) to a nonconference victory over the Explorers (7-8) at Philadelphia.

No. 13 Louisville 83, Tulane 76--Greg Minor scored 19 points to help the Cardinals (13-2, 3-1) to a Metro Conference victory over the Green Wave (8-6, 1-3) at New Orleans.

No. 20 Minnesota 63, No. 15 Michigan 58--Townsend Orr made an important steal and scored four of his 12 points in the last five minutes, helping the Gophers (12-4, 3-1) to a Big Ten Conference victory over the Wolverines (11-4, 3-2) at Minneapolis.

Michigan played without center Juwan Howard and swingman Jimmy King, who were sidelined because of chickenpox, and made only 37.5% of its shots, its worst shooting of the season.

OTHER GAMES

Tony Harris scored a career-high 34 points to lead Washington State (12-5, 2-3) to a Pac-10 victory over Oregon (5-8, 1-3) at Eugene, Ore. . . . Freshman center Jerohn Brown scored a career-high 22 points to lead Oregon State (5-8, 1-3) to a 75-71 Pac-10 victory over Washington (2-12, 0-5) at Corvallis, Ore.

Rodney Walker scored 17 points to lead New Mexico State (13-1, 5-0) to a Big West Conference victory over Utah State (6-9, 3-4) at Las Cruces, N.M. . . . Kebu Stewart scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half as Nevada Las Vegas (7-5, 3-1) defeated Nevada (6-9, 2-5) in a Big West game at Las Vegas. . . . Freshman Robbie Reid made a four-foot baseline shot with three seconds remaining in overtime to give Brigham Young (12-3, 5-1) an 83-82 Western Athletic Conference victory over San Diego State (6-7, 1-5) at San Diego.

Gerrod Abram scored a season-high 17 points to lead Boston College (12-5) to a 107-72 nonconference victory over Holy Cross (5-8) at Newton, Mass. . . . Damon Crawford’s jump hook with six seconds to play gave Colorado State (10-5, 3-3) a 72-70 Western Athletic Conference victory over New Mexico (13-4, 5-2) at Fort Collins, Colo.