The Stanford Cardinal welcomed Washington State to Palo Alto on Thursday and were looking to secure their first three-game win streak of the entire season.
Unfortunately for the shorthanded Cardinal, they fell apart losing by a score of 89-75, despite it being a tight start to the first half. While the Cougars' Isaac Jones was dominant in the paint, scoring 24 points it was actually redshirt freshman guard Myles Rice that proved to be too much. Rice finished the contest with a game-high 35 points, outdueling Stanford's freshman phenom Kanaan Carlyle who had 31 points of his own on 55% shooting.
What really hurt Stanford wasn't their effectiveness on offense, as they actually shot 52% from the field and 57% from three, it was their ability to take care of the ball. The Cardinal had 17 turnovers, which led to an additional 19 points for Washington State. Something that comes as somewhat of a surprise when you consider Stanford had just five turnovers last game in the win over Utah, but on Thursday they were recklessly slinging the ball all over the yard.
It also didn't help that they were outscored in the paint 58-28, as the Cougars were getting to the rim whenever they pleased.
There hasn't yet been a timetable for the return of Spencer Jones or Jared Bynum, but Stanford certainly missed what they each bring to the table. Something that also hurt Stanford was Brandon Angel and Michael Jones not finding shots. Angel scored just seven points after averaging 17.6 over the last three, while Jones had one point and just one attempt from the field after averaging 16.3 over the last three as well.
Stanford (9-8) returns to action on Saturday against the Washington Huskies (11-7), who are fresh off of a buzzer-beating thriller over Cal.
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