Stanford limits Wiggins to 4, stuns Kansas

ST. LOUIS — Stanford guard Anthony Brown had no doubt that teammate Josh Huestis could put the clamps on Kansas forward Andrew Wiggins in the South Regional on Sunday.

“He’s tough,” Brown said of Huestis. “I know all his tricks. I knew he would make it difficult for him.”

With Huestis and the Cardinal’s 2-3 matchup zone completely shutting down Wiggins, Stanford rock-chalked the Jayhawks out of the NCAA Tournament as it posted a 60-57 upset at Scottrade Center.

Forward Dwight Powell scored 15 points, guard Chasson Randle contributed 13 and guard Anthony Brown and center Stefan Nastic each had 10 for Stanford (23-12). It will meet No. 11 Dayton on Thursday night in a bracket-collapse South Regional semifinal at FedEx Forum in Memphis.

But it was Huestis, a 6-foot-7 senior forward from Great Falls, Mont., who played a starring role with his defense on Wiggins. Expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in June’s NBA Draft by some experts, Wiggins paced Kansas in scoring this season at 17.4 points per game.

However, Wiggins couldn’t shake free of Huestis. The Canadian managed just six shots from the field and made only one, finishing with as many points as turnovers — four.

“The first thing was I had to be as physical as I could without fouling him,” Huestis said. “I wanted to stay with him and make him uncomfortable. I think that after a while, he might have started to get frustrated and not take shots he normally would.”

Wiggins wasn’t the only Jayhawk to turn down or miss shots. Forward Perry Ellis went just 3-for-10 and scored only nine points. Guard Wayne Selden Jr. was only 1-for-5 from the field and managed two points.

With freshman center Joel Embiid (back) missing his sixth straight game, it meant none of Kansas’ top four scorers got to double figures.

“Stanford did a good job with its zone,” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said, “but it wasn’t like we didn’t expect to see it. We just couldn’t make shots. I think some guys got tentative as the game went on and they either missed shots or passed them up.”

Center Tarik Black scored a game-high 18 points before fouling out with 5:25 left, while freshman guard Conner Frankamp came off the bench to add 12. Frankamp drained consecutive 3-pointers in the last 30 seconds as Kansas tried to overcome a seven-point deficit.

But Frankamp couldn’t make a third straight under duress from a defender and the expiring clock. Fading away from about 25 feet on the right wing, Frankamp’s high-arcing hope at forcing overtime hit glass but not rim just before time expired.

“I didn’t get a real good look at the basket,” he said. “I kind of knew it wasn’t going in.”

Kansas led by five points early in the second half, but committed four fouls in a 33-second span and the Cardinal took advantage. They took the lead for good on Powell’s foul line jumper with 15:10 left.

Consistently working the ball inside, Stanford converted 13 of 22 field goals in the second half, a marked change from its 32 percent first-half marksmanship.

“The biggest difference was we slowed down and made the extra pass,” Brown said of the team’s offense in the second half.

The Cardinal had some hiccups down the stretch with six turnovers over the last seven minutes. But Powell and Brown canned 7 of 10 foul shots in the last minute, giving them just enough cushion for their first Sweet 16 trip in six years.

NOTES: Stanford C Stefan Nastic had a string of 16 straight field goals snapped in Friday’s win against New Mexico when he missed his last attempt of the first half. … Kansas F Perry Ellis’ 14 points and 13 rebounds on Friday against Eastern Kentucky gave him his fifth double-double of the season. … Cardinal G Chasson Randle is sixth in school history with 1,617 points entering Sunday’s game, and has another year of eligibility left. … When shooting more than 50 percent from the field, as they did Friday, the Jayhawks are 18-1.