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By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports

Aaron Bright was Stanford's best player during its run to the NIT championship. This season, he lost his starting job.

That may all change after a breakout performance in the Cardinal's 78-67 victory over visiting Washington State in a Pac-12 Conference men's basketball contest Wednesday night.

Bright scored a season-high 21 points to help Stanford record its first conference victory in its home conference opener.

Part of the reason for Bright's early season struggles was a sprained ankle that forced him out of action a total of four games. He says his ankle is about 90-95 percent healthy.

The win breathed new life into a Stanford team that stumbled out of the blocks by losing its first two Pac-12 games, both on the road.

The Cardinal (1-2, 20-6) hopes to maintain its momentum when Washington comes to town for an 8 p.m. conference contest Saturday night.

"It's starting to come around," Bright said. "My ankle is getting better and we just focused on running a lot of motion and pushing the ball."

Chasson Randle added 16 points for the Cardinal, which improved to 6-1 at home.

"It was good to see the ball go in," Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins said. "You could see it coming. He's had good practices and he's been productive."

Bright reached double figures for just the fourth time. He entered the game shooting .319 from the field, including .222 from long range.

Against the Cougars he was 5 of 7 from the field, 3 of 4 from 3-point range and made all eight of his foul shots.

"Aaron always brings it on practice," said Powell, who also had four blocked shots. "I'm not surprised by what he did."

The largest lead for either team was six points until Stanford began pulling away after a Josh Huestis 3-pointer with 6:53 remaining sparked a 20-4 run.

Stanford led at halftime, 27-23.

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