Field Level Media
Dec 21, 2020
Ziaire Williams scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, helping Stanford to a 63-50 win over California State-Bakersfield Monday night at Santa Cruz, Calif.
Bryce Wills added 14 points and the Cardinal (5-2) pulled away in the second half despite making just 2 of 12 3-point shots in the game.
Justin Edler-Davis led the Roadrunners (3-3) with 13 points, and De'Monte Buckingham added 10 points with nine rebounds. Stanford had a huge edge in points in the paint at 34-14 in a game that was not originally on either team's schedule.
CSU-Bakersfield was fortunate to trail 30-22 at halftime after making just 6 of 26 shots. Edler-Davis made three 3-pointers and had 11 points in the first half.
Williams led the Cardinal with eight first-half points although both teams got off to a slow start. Stanford led 12-10 at the midway point of the first half, and the Pac-12's leading scorer, Oscar da Silva, had to miss stretches of the opening 20 minutes because of a scratch on his back that drew blood.
Da Silva, named the Pac-12 Player of the Week earlier Monday after he averaged 26.5 points a game in a pair of Stanford wins last week, finished with 10 points.
Stanford went ahead 38-27 on a fastbreak layup from Williams with 15:48 remaining in the game. Williams put the ball behind his back to shed his defender before jumping for the layup.
The Roadrunners hung around, staying within 10 points for much of the half, but a Spencer Jones 3-pointer gave Stanford a 49-37 lead with 8:10 to play.
Two minutes later, Wills threw down a lob for a dunk and scored off a steal for a 54-42 lead, then took a charge at the defensive end to turn the tide completely in the Cardinal's favor.
The Cardinal was without Daejon Davis, a senior and starting guard, who sat out with a leg injury that happened in Stanford's win over Arizona on Saturday.
--Field Level Media