Stanford wins easily
Cornell fared much better in Ivy than it did in the trees.
The Big Red went 14-0 in Ivy League play, but Thursday it played Stanford, with players who stretched to the roof of the Honda Center.
In a matchup involving two prestigious academic institutions, No. 3 Stanford beat No. 14 Cornell’s brains out, 77-53, to advance to Saturday’s second-round South Regional matchup against Marquette.
Some thought this opening game offered the slight chance of an upset. The schools had three common opponents this season -- Siena, Harvard and Yale. Stanford went 2-1 against those schools, with a road loss at Siena.
Cornell went 5-0 against Siena, Harvard and Yale.
Stanford and Cornell, though, had nothing in common, as the Cardinal jumped to a 6-0 lead and never looked up.
“We knew we needed to come in there and impose our will or else there would have been a good chance for an upset,” Stanford’s Robin Lopez said.
Stanford (27-7) led by 21 at the half and pushed it to 24 when Brook Lopez provided an alley-oop dunk opportunity for his brother Robin with 18:22 left.
Kenny Brown led Stanford with 18 points, making four of five three-point shots.
Stanford didn’t even need the full firepower of the Lopez twins. Brook, averaging nearly 20 points, scored four points while taking only two shots. He played 15 minutes and picked up his third foul with 18 minutes left.
That would cause panic in many Stanford games but not this one.
The Cardinal simply leaned on the other Lopez and Brown, to make it an easy first-round NCAA day.
Robin became the go-to guy, making seven of nine shots and finishing with 14 points to go with four blocks.
Cornell’s 7-foot center Jeff Foote must have thought he had double vision as he tried to deal with Stanford’s two seven-footers. Foote made one basket in six tries.
Stanford outrebounded Cornell, 47-25.
Cornell entered the game as the only team to rank nationally in the top 10 in field goal (49.2%), three-point (41.4%) and free-throw (76.3%) percentage.
Stanford’s defense, though, was overwhelming. Cornell shot 30.5.% (18 for 59) and made eight of 26 three-point attempts.
“You have to work hard to get past their perimeter defense,” Cornell guard Louis Dale said. “Then there are two seven-footers there to block your shot.”
Dale led Cornell with 12 points despite missing 12 of his 16 shots.
The 53 points were a season-low for Cornell, held to 64 in a December loss at Syracuse. Cornell finished the season 22-6.
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