Stanford runs past UNLV to easy win

NEW YORK — Entering every game, the unranked Stanford Cardinal have the mentality to leave their mark just like they did last year when they made a surprising run to the Sweet 16.

Given plenty of room to shoot 3-pointers, the Cardinal made a good impression on Friday.

Senior guards Chasson Randle and Anthony Brown scored 18 points apiece as Stanford used a barrage of 3-pointers and coasted to a wire-to-wire 89-60 rout of UNLV at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Barclays Center.

The Cardinal (3-0) reached 80 points for the second time in three games and will face Duke or Temple in Saturday’s championship game. Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins was a guard at Duke in the mid-1980s but like his team was focused on the victory and not looking ahead to facing his former coach.

“I think the biggest thing for us is we just take every game as an opportunity,” Brown said. “We have a 1-0 mentality every single game and every game that we play we want to leave our mark. We don’t look at the name of the other team or who they have. We just focus on ourselves and play to the best of our abilities and whatever happens, happens.”

What happened for Stanford was a dominant showing from behind the arc. After going 5-for-21 in wins over Wofford and South Dakota State and coming into the game tied with LSU for 307th in the nation in 3-point shooting percentage, the Cardinal made 14 of 20.

“A little surprised but at the same time I think our guys did a great job of spacing the floor and finding the open man,” Randle said. “It just happened to be our night shooting the basketball.”

Randle and Brown had a big hand in Stanford’s outstanding shooting as they combined 10-for-15 from 3-point range. That included going a combined 7 of 11 in the first half when the Cardinal scored the first 12 points and opened a 52-29 lead at halftime.

“They did a terrific job of finding the shooters,” UNLV coach Dave Rice said. “We did a poor job of locating their shooters and the result was 14-for-20 from three for Stanford.

Randle entered Friday shooting 1-of-8 from behind the arc but never got out of rhythm and moved to within 10 points of Todd Lichti (1,714 points) on the school’s all-time scoring list. He also needs one 3-pointer to tie Casey Jacobsen (222) for third place on the school’s all-time list.

Forward Rosco Allen added 15 for Stanford, which shot 50 percent (31-for-62). Fifth-year senior Stefan Nastic contributed 10 and seven rebounds despite shooting 3-of-13 from the floor.

Forward Christian Wood led the Rebels (2-1) with 12 points and had 11 rebounds but highly touted freshman guard Rashad Vaughn was held to seven on 2-for-9 shooting after totaling 44 points in narrow wins over Morehead State and Sam Houston State.

UNLV shot 37.9 percent and was outrebounded by a 47-29-margin.

Although the outcome was never in doubt, Stanford let the lead slip under 20 points early in the second half. After missing their first six shots of the half, Brown hit his third 3-pointer for a 55-33 lead and the Cardinal cushion never dipped below 20 points the rest of the way.

“I think we beat a good team,” Dawkins said. “I think we beat a team that is a little younger as well. I’m proud of our guys and our effort. I think we came out focused for pretty much the entire game

UNLV missed its first seven shots from the field and Stanford expanded its lead to 25-8 on five straight points by Travis that forced the Rebels to call a 30-second timeout with 11:38 remaining before the regularly scheduled television timeout.

At that point, the Rebels had missed 11 of their first 14 shots from the floor and things continued going well for the Cardinal. Stanford reached 30 points before the 10-minute mark and opened a 26-point lead on Randle’s fourth 3-pointer a few minutes later.

UNLV cut the deficit under 20 points on a 3-point play by guard Jordan Cornish with 1:45 remaining, but Randle’s fifth 3-pointer and a layup by Brown gave Stanford its halftime edge.

“Stanford obviously is a terrific basketball team,” Rice said.