Stanford Posts 20th Win with 70-56 Victory at Wichita State
Faces Oregon State (Again) in Corvallis Wednesday
box score

WICHITA, Kans. – A first-half scoring barrage coupled with a stingy defensive effort resulted in a 70-56 Stanford victory in the quarterfinals of the 2009 College Basketball Invitational (CBI).

Less than a week after routing Boise State 96-76 in the tournament's opening round, Stanford picked up its fifth road win of the year in front of 8,812 raucous fans at Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena.

Now Stanford will experience a quick and unique turnaround on the road and square off against Pac-10 foe Oregon State in Corvallis on Wednesday, Mar. 25, with a berth in the CBI's best-of-three championship series on the line. Stanford and Oregon State will be battling for the fourth time this year, with the Cardinal winning 62-54 two weeks ago in the play-in round of the Pac-10 Tournament after the Beavers swept both meetings by double-digits in the regular season series.

With Monday's 70-56 victory, Stanford notched its 20th win of the year and improved to 20-13 overall. That's quite an accomplishment for a team that had to overcome the losses of Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez (2008 NBA Draft) and three seniors to graduation.

Much like last week's win over Boise State, Stanford raced out to a huge lead and coasted the rest of the way. Leading the charge was Lawrence Hill with a game-high 21 points on 8-13 shooting in 33 minutes while Anthony Goods added 18 points on 7-15 shooting in 32 minutes.

Stanford shot 50.9 percent overall, including a blistering 60.7 percent in the first half, and held a 37-31 advantage in the rebounding department over Wichita State (17-17, 8-10 Missouri Valley).

The Shockers were paced by Clevin Hannah's 13 points while J.T. Durley chipped in with 11.

Stanford was in front 42-26 at intermission, leading by as much as 20 points early on after Josh Owens converted on the second of two free throws for a 30-10 lead with 6:17 remaining in the first half.

Meanwhile, a stifling Cardinal defense limited the Shockers to just 32.1 percent shooting from the field over the first 20 minutes as the home squad struggled to get open looks.

Stanford maintained a comfortable lead throughout the second half, and extended its lead to 19 on a triple from Hill at the 16:50 mark. But Wichita State countered with a 16-8 run thanks to six points over the next eight minutes from Durley. That's as close as the Shockers would get the rest of the way.

The Cardinal held a 24-20 points in the paint edge and dished out 13 assists compared to the Shockers' total of six.