Mendez Keeps Stanford From Fouling Up

After having so many free throws being missed by others, Stanford finally wised up and put the ball in the hands of Ryan Mendez.

Mendez made six consecutive free throws in the final 35 seconds as the No. 2-ranked Cardinal used a late 13-0 run to overcome otherwise awful shooting from the foul line and beat Oregon, 69-62, Thursday night at Eugene, Ore.

“The strength of this team is that anybody can step up at any time,” Mendez said.

Stanford, 21-1 overall and 9-1 in conference, struggled in avoiding a second loss in row, having been beaten, 79-73, by UCLA at home last Saturday.

Stanford came into Thursday’s game leading the Pacific 10 in virtually every statistical category, including free-throw shooting at 74%, but made only 21 for 37 against Oregon (12-8, 3-7). Jason Collins, who had game-high totals in points (19) and rebounds (11) for the Cardinal, was only four for nine on his free throws while twin brother Jarron was six for 14.

Oregon, meanwhile, attempted only seven free throws, making three. The Ducks were called for 27 fouls, compared to 17 for the Cardinal.

“We played our hearts out, but just didn’t get any breaks,” said Oregon’s Bryan Bracey. “They’re the No. 2 team in the nation, so they’re going to get the calls.”

Bracey scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half, making a a three-point shot that gave Oregon a 56-49 lead with six minutes left. The Ducks, however, didn’t score in the next four minutes and Stanford scored half of its final 20 points on free throws.

“We had an excellent game plan, and we executed for 34 or 35 minutes, but with teams like Stanford, a little bit of slippage and they can get to you,” Oregon Coach Ernie Kent said.

California 72, Oregon State 69--Sean Lampley scored a career-high 32 points and made a game-winning three-point shot with less than a second left in overtime for the Golden Bears (16-6, 7-3) at Corvallis, Ore.

Jason Heide scored a career-high 23 points for Oregon State (8-14, 2-8). The Beavers had only seven players in uniform, with guards Emonte Jernigan and Deaundra Tanner suspended for breaking an unspecified team rule.

Solomon Hughes rebounded a three-point shot by teammate Joe Shipp and banked in a six-footer to give California a 69-68 lead with 24 seconds in overtime.

Heide was then fouled by Hughes, and made one of two free throws to tie the score. The Golden Bears then inbounded the ball to Shantay Legans, who brought the ball up and passed to Lampley at the top of the key, from where he made the game-winning shot.

Oregon State forced the overtime when, with one second to play in regulation, Jimmie Haywood took an inbounds pass from Adam Masten and scored on a layup to tie it at 62-62.

Washington State 58, Arizona State 57--David Adams’ two free throws with 2:15 left accounted for the final points at Tempe, Ariz., as the Cougars (9-11, 2-8) ended their losing streak in conference road games at 30.

Arizona State (10-11, 2-8) had a nine-point lead with 5:47 left, then went scoreless. In the final 14.4 seconds, Tommy Smith of Arizona State and J Locklier missed two free throws each. After Locklier’s second miss with 12.7 seconds, Sean Redhage rebounded for Arizona State and got the ball to Kyle Dodd, who missed a 17-footer. The ball caromed out of bounds as time ran out.

Mike Bush had a game-high 20 points for Washington State.