Stanford Is Only Unbeaten Team Left

The moment top-ranked Stanford changed its defense, New Mexico’s fast-paced game came to a grinding halt.

Casey Jacobsen scored 14 points and Ryan Mendez had 13 at Palo Alto and Stanford held New Mexico to 21 points in the final 28 minutes of a 75-44 victory Saturday that moved the Cardinal within one victory of matching the best start in school history.

Stanford (17-0) became the nation’s only unbeaten Division I team after No. 9 Georgetown’s 70-66 loss to Pittsburgh earlier in the day.

Still, both teams said a simple zone defense was all that Stanford needed to turn a competitive game into a laugher with impressive speed.

“That really didn’t feel like a 30-point ball game at all,” Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery said. “New Mexico was even quicker and more aggressive than we thought they were going to be. I don’t know if we’ve played a team that quick. Putting a zone in there helped us, because we got them out right of their tempo.”

The Cardinal can equal the 1997-98 team’s school-record 18-game winning streak--also the school’s top start to a season--with a victory Thursday at Washington.

In the first meeting between the schools since the 1974-75 season, New Mexico (12-3) wasn’t afraid of the nation’s No. 1 team. The Lobos drove the lane with reckless abandon and played with defensive fire on the way to a 24-23 lead with less than nine minutes left in the first half.

That’s when Stanford put on the defensive clamps, using a 1-2-2 zone defense that wouldn’t allow New Mexico to penetrate the paint.

“We knew they were going to play zone against us, but I had not seen a 1-2-2 on any of the tapes,” New Mexico Coach Fran Fraschilla said. “That threw us out of it. They were worried about our penetration because we had been driving the ball. The zone cut us off, and then we couldn’t make a shot.”

The Cardinal closed the first half with a 23-3 run and allowed the Lobos only one field goal in the final 9:24 before halftime. Mendez, Jacobsen and 7-foot reserve center Curtis Borchardt hit three-pointers as Stanford shot 56 percent in the first half.

“They were playing with pride against us, (but) we took them out of their game when we put the zone in,” Mendez said. “After that, they didn’t take too many of their good shots.”

The Cardinal again had the remarkable offensive balance that’s become their trademark, with eight players scoring at least five points. Stanford held New Mexico to 32 percent shooting, including 24 percent (seven of 29) in the second half. The Lobos made only one of their 12 three-point tries.

Oregon 81, Washington State 66--Frederick Jones scored 19 points and Bryan Bracey had 17 as Ducks (11-4, 2-3) defeated the undermanned Cougars at Eugene, Ore.

The victory ended an Oregon losing streak at three games, while Washington State (7-8, 1-5) suffered its 29th consecutive Pac-10 road loss.

Washington State dressed only seven players because Coach Paul Graham sent six players back to Pullman, Wash., for violating an unspecified team rule. In a written statement, Graham said it had nothing to do with criminal activity.

Oregon State 63, Washington 56--Jimmie Haywood scored a career-high 16 points to lead the Beavers to a victory over the Huskies at Corvallis, Ore.

With the score tied at 48-48, Emonte Jernigan made a three-point shot to give the Oregon State (8-9, 2-3) the lead for good.

Washington (8-10, 2-4) missed its next nine shots as Oregon State built its lead to 56-48 with just over a minute left.

California 79, South Florida 69--Sean Lampley had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Shantay Legans scored six of his 12 points in the final two minutes as the Golden Bears won the nonconference game at Berkeley.

Cal (12-5) shot 60% and scored the game’s final nine points while remaining undefeated in 10 games at home this season. South Florida is 11-6.