Stanford Is Just Too Tough for California

California thought it could beat third-ranked Stanford at its own physical game Saturday at Berkeley, but the result was all too familiar.

Stanford, which leads the nation in field-goal percentage defense, held California to 19% shooting in the first half of an 81-70 victory. The Cardinal, 15-1 overall and 4-1 in the Pacific 10, has won six consecutive games against the Golden Bears (10-7, 1-4).

Forward Mark Madsen, who had made only 36% of his shots in his previous Pacific 10 games, was seven for eight and had a game-high 19 points. He also had 11 rebounds.

“I feel like one of the strategies of teams is to come out and play physical with us, because they know that’s what we do,” Madsen said. “They just try to fight fire with fire.”

All that did was fire up Stanford, which has allowed opponents to make only 33% of their shots. California missed 21 of 26 shots and committed 16 fouls in falling behind 34-25 at halftime. Stanford made only nine of 27 shots and had 14 fouls in the first half but was never seriously threatened after taking a 16-point lead early in the second half.

Forward Sean Lampley, the Pacific 10’s third-leading scorer at 17.1 points a game, was held out of the starting lineup by Coach Ben Braun for unspecified reasons. Lampley had a team-high 16 points--14 in the second half on seven-of-11 shooting.

Guard Ryan Mendez made all four of his three-point shots in scoring 15 points for Stanford.

Oregon 81, Washington State 80--Forward A.D. Smith made a shot from inside the key with 36 seconds left in overtime that marked the 22nd lead change in the game at Pullman, Wash., and proved decisive for the Ducks (13-3, 4-1).

Washington State guard Jan-Michael Thomas missed a running shot with four seconds left and players were still scrambling for the rebound as time expired.

Oregon forward Alex Scales had 27 points, and made the last two shots of regulation in the final minute--both three-pointers.

Forward Chris Crosby had 25 points for Washington State (5-10, 0-6).