First-year coach Johnny Dawkins took the microphone after the game and thanked the 1,243 fans who watched the Stanford men's basketball team beat visiting Boise State, 96-76 in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational on Wednesday night.

"I don't know if we're going to get another home game this year so I want to thank all of you for supporting us," Dawkins said. "This is just the beginning for this program."

Later he told the gathered media "I wanted to show my appreciation to the sixth man club and the fans who did come out. It meant a lot to me and to our team."

Jeremy Green scored 19 points, three off his career high, on 7-of-11 shooting, and Lawrence Hill added 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting to lead the Cardinal, which has won four of their last six and will play at Wichita State in the quarterfinals on Monday.

"It was fun out there," Green said. "We got a chance to go up and down the court. It felt like playing in an open gym. It's still five-on-five. The only difference is the refs, the crowd and a few cameras."

Landry Fields added 16 points for the Cardinal (19-13), which shot 54.3 percent from the floor and set a school record for points in a postseason contest.

Hill was a freshman when Stanford played in the NIT, and he called it "a little weird because we lost our last home game that year," he said. "We talked about it a little bit before the game and felt this would be fun because of the way we played in our last home game."

The Cardinal, 5-6 against the NCAA field despite finishing ninth in the Pac-10, held a commanding lead throughout the second half as Dawkins substituted liberally.

"It was a well-played game by our guys from start to finish," he said. "It made for a good experience for them. At the end of this month there are only going to be four champions from these various tournaments and our goal is to be one of them."

Anthony Goods supplied the second half highlight with a monster slam that led to a technical foul with 5:27 remaining to play. Stanford led 88-61 at the time.

Boise State drew within 27-22 before Stanford finished the first half with a 24-9 run to take a 51-31 lead into intermission.