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Stanford senior Taj Finger has become a major player on Top 10 men’s basketball team.
Nine points and 10 rebounds may not seem like much, but it speaks volumes to the blue-collar effort given by the ninth-ranked Cardinal night in and night out.
Stanford beat Oregon State, 71-56, on Saturday in Maples Pavilion and that doesn’t happen without Finger’s energetic contribution.
“Every game in the Pac-10 is tough no matter what,” Finger said after Stanford recorded its 20th win on the season. “If you’re not ready to play from the start you get beat.”
The Beavers, winless in conference play, became another example of just that. Oregon State was the aggressor for most of the first half and held a 22-20 lead with 5:14 remaining in the early going.
Then Finger and his teammates went to work, carving a halftime lead out of a 15-0 run to finish off the half. The Cardinal (9-2, 20-3) led by as many as 20 in the second half, although Oregon State crept within nine several times in the closing minutes.
Brook Lopez and Lawrence Hill each scored 14 points to lead Stanford but this was not Brook’s best game. The Beavers were bothersome for the seven-footer. He turned it over seven times and was visibly frustrated most of the game. He was a mere 3-of-7 from the field, taking one shot in the first 20 minutes, but he made all eight of his free throws.
“I get a lot of points off Brook,” Finger said. “When they double-team him, it leaves me open. I have to thank him.”
Finger’s 10 rebounds were one shy of his career best as the Cardinal outrebounded the Beavers, 46-21.
Stanford goes back on the road this week, making a stop in Tempe to play Arizona State on Thursday at 7 p.m.
“We feel great,” Finger said. “We’re on a roll and we want to keep it going. Since I’ve been a freshman we’ve never been in this position. We’ve always had to show something; we had something to prove. I still feel that way and we treat every practice the same, with the same intensity and the same focus.”
Stanford remains in second place in the Pac-10, one game behind UCLA and 2 1/2 games ahead of third-place Arizona. A sweep in the desert would put the Cardinal in the driver’s seat heading down the stretch.
Fred Washington had a career-high nine rebounds to go with six points, two steals, two assists, significant ball-handling duties and defensive skills.
Finger and Washington, the only seniors on the team, combined for six rebounds during the 15-0 run and that seemed to spark the Cardinal. There was one sequence in which Washington and Finger were both in position to make a play and they were high-fiving and obviously having fun returning to defense.
Kenny Brown hit a 3-pointer with less than four seconds left in the first half to put Stanford up 35-22 at halftime.
“Stanford beat host Oregon State, 71-56, on Saturday in Maples Pavilion…”
If the game was at Maples Pavilion, I’m pretty sure that Stanford was the host and not Oregon State.
What is a ‘blue collar’ effort on the part of Stanford? Oregon State was the “host”? This was a very poorly written piece from a basketball and a grammatical point of view.