NCAA News Wire
Arizona 60, Stanford 47
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
STANFORD, Calif. — No. 1 Arizona came back from a seven-point, second-half deficit on Wednesday to beat Stanford 60-57 and remain unbeaten.
Guard Nick Johnson scored 16 points and hit most of the key shots for the Wildcats (21-0, 8-0 Pac-12). He made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 49 seconds to go, then hit two clutch free throws with 5.8 seconds left to push the margin to three.
Point guard T.J. McConnell added 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Arizona.
Stanford (13-7, 4-4) got 12 points from guard Chasson Randle, who went 3 of 15 from the field. Forwards Dwight Powell and Josh Huestis led the Cardinal with 13 points apiece.
Stanford held the lead for much of the second half.
Powell scored the last of six straight Stanford points to help the Cardinal take a 49-42 lead with 13:15 left.
The Cardinal still held a seven-point lead until forward Brandon Ashley converted a three-point play with 12:22 to go. Not only did that bring the Wildcats within four points, but it also produced Powell’s fourth personal foul.
The Wildcats tied the game on Ashley’s jumper with 6:30 remaining.
Neither team did much offensively until Johnson hit an eight-foot floater in the lane to put Arizona ahead 55-53 with 2:36 left.
Powell tied it with a reverse layup, but Johnson hit a 3-pointer following center Kaleb Tarczewski’s offensive rebound to give Arizona a 58-53 lead with 49 seconds left.
Johnson missed the front end of a one-and-one situation with 33.7 seconds left, but Huestis missed a 3-point attempt with 13 seconds left.
Arizona forward Aaron Gordon missed the front end of a one-and-one with 11.6 seconds left. Arizona fouled Randle with seven seconds left, and he hit both to make it a 58-57 game.
Johnson then hit both his free throws with 5.8 seconds left, and Randle missed a long 3-point attempt with two seconds remaining.
Stanford held a 31-30 lead at halftime as Cardinal guard Anthony Brown hit a five-foot shot in traffic with three seconds left.
Stanford took an early 9-2 lead as Arizona missed eight of its first nine shots from the field.
Arizona then scored eight straight points to take an 11-10 lead, and the Wildcats lengthened their lead to 21-16 at the 8:10 mark of the first half when Tarczewski converted a three-point play.
Stanford regained the lead at 25-23 with 4:16 left on two free throws by Randle, then took a one-point lead into the intermission on Brown’s final shot of the half.
Brown and Randle led Stanford with seven first-half points apiece, while McConnell was the high scorer for the Wildcats with nine points.
NOTES: Arizona entered Wednesday’s game with a 20-game winning streak, the longest in school history. … The Wildcats are ranked No. 1 for the eighth consecutive week. … Arizona started the week ranked fourth in the nation in both field-goal percentage defense (37.2 percent) and scoring defense (56.7 points). … The last time Stanford hosted a No. 1 team was March 1, 2003, when the Cardinal lost to top-ranked Arizona 72-69. The Cardinal’s most recent game against a No. 1 team was Dec. 6, 2003, when Stanford upset No. 1 Kansas 64-58 in Anaheim. … Stanford has started the same five players for all 20 games this season.
