Victory Over Stanford Ranks Up There for Arizona State

Arizona State has played well in many of its games against nationally ranked teams the last two seasons, but always found a way to lose--until Saturday.

The Sun Devils ended a losing streak at 14 games against ranked teams by defeating No. 4 Stanford, 90-87, in overtime at Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto.

“This is huge,” said guard Jeremy Veal, who scored nine of his 27 points in overtime. “We’ve come close to ranked teams before but today we came out and finished the job. We had heart out there and a lot of desire.”

It was the Cardinal’s second loss in a row after opening the season with a school-record 18 consecutive victories. Stanford, 18-2 overall and 7-2 in the Pacific 10, lost 93-75 to No. 6 Arizona on Thursday.

“This is tough to take,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “We played well enough to win. We weren’t prepared mentally to the fact that Arizona State was as good as they are. We couldn’t answer them. I thought we were flat to start and not ready mentally to play. They’ve got good athletes that hurt us.”

The victory for Arizona State (14-8, 4-5) was its first against a ranked team since March 11, 1995, when it defeated No. 12 Arizona 103-98. The Sun Devils had lost to five ranked opponents this season.

“This shows you what can happen on any given night and what can happen if a group follows the script,” Arizona State Coach Don Newman said. “We played ranked teams this year before but we haven’t gotten over the hump and we wanted to come in here focused. And today, on this floor, we were the better bunch.”

Bobby Lazor’s shot jumper with 47 seconds left in regulation put Arizona State ahead 74-73, and Veal made two free throws with 28 seconds left. Ryan Mendez made a three-point shot with 18 seconds left to tie the score, 76-76, and Veal missed a running jumper at the buzzer.

The Sun Devils opened to an 83-77 lead in overtime, with Veal scoring five of the points.

But Stanford came back on two three-point baskets by Arthur Lee, the last coming with four seconds left to pull the Cardinal within 88-87. But on a long inbounds pass, Mendez was called for an intentional foul against Veal, who made both free throws. The Sun Devils retained possession and time ran out.

Tim Young led Stanford with 24 points. Mark Madsen, sidelined because of a stress fracture in his right foot, played for the first time in nine games and had 10 points.

No. 6 Arizona 70, California 57--Mike Bibby led four double-figure scorers with 16 points at Oakland as the Wildcats (19-3, 9-0) won their 12th in a row.

Arizona started the second half with a 12-4 run for its biggest lead at 49-34.

Sean Lampley’s career-high 17 points led Cal (8-9, 4-5).

Oregon 74, Oregon State 67-- Terik Brown made six of nine three-point shots and had a career-high 24 points to lead the Ducks (3-6, 8-10) to their ninth consecutive victory over the Beavers (1-8, 10-10) in the game at Eugene, Ore.

Oregon also got 35 points from its reserves. Mike McShane, scoreless in four of his last five games, had a career-high 15 points.

Corey Benjamin had a career-high 36 points for Oregon State, making all 10 of his free throws.