The road offers win, woe

The Cardinal (2-1 Pac-12, 9-5 overall) had an answer for its 56-55 Sunday loss to Colorado, two days after going overtime to beat No. 21 Utah.

Stanford, which returned to campus before resuming its road trip in Eugene on Sunday night, is showing signs of maturing into a competitive team despite relying on sophomores and freshmen for major contributions.

It helps having senior Rosco Allen in synch. He scored 21 points against the Beavers, his best output since a 25-point effort against Arkansas.

Meanwhile, junior Marcus Allen added 15 points for the Cardinal, which won its fourth in five games. Sophomore Dorian Pickens had 14 points, the fifth time in seven games he's reached double figures.

Oregon State suffered its third loss and its second at home, where the Beavers lost twice all of last year.

It could be a portent of things to come. Teams are one, two or three games into their conference schedule and it's already a strange year. Washington and Arizona are only teams left without a conference loss. The Huskies were picked to finish near the bottom of the Pac-12.

Stanford wasn't picked much higher, but with a win over a ranked team and a road victory, it could turn into a better-than-expected conference season.

The Cardinal will learn more about itself this weekend against the Ducks, who knocked off California on Wednesday after losing to Oregon State last week.

"We have a lot of great teams trying to make the tournament," Rosco Allen said. "It's going to be a fight for us all."

Stanford opened the conference season with a split at home, and had to rally from double-digit deficits in both games. Each time the Cardinal fell behind early before putting it together in the second half.

The only deficit Stanford faced against the Beavers was by three points in the opening minutes of the contest.

Stanford maintained a 7-12-point advantage throughout the second half, winning the rebounding battle by a 46-29 margin, including 20-9 on the offensive boards.

"That should be something we're good at," Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins said. "Guys made a good effort tonight."

The Cardinal, playing on the road for the first time in 40 days, beat Oregon State for the sixth time in its past seven meetings. It's the first time in six meetings that a Stanford player has not recorded a double-double.

Rosco Allen, who matched Michael Humphrey for the team with eight rebounds, came the closest. Allen recorded at least 20 points for the second time this season and has reached double figures in scoring in eight of the past nine games.

Humphrey has at least eight rebounds in each of the past five games he's played.

The Beavers took an early lead but a sustained, 23-6, run over an 11-minute span put the Cardinal ahead, 26-12, with 5:39 remaining to play in the first half.

Marcus Allen hit a layup and 3-pointer to spark the rally and freshman Josh Sharma scored six straight points to finish the run.

Women's basketball

No. 9 Stanford hopes never to repeat Monday night's result against Arizona State, a 49-31 loss that established a school record for fewest points in a game.

"We have a lot of work to do on our offense. We struggled knocking down shots that we've been making all year," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "Credit their defense. Arizona State played very well. They're very aggressive, and we just were not aggressive enough."

The 14th-ranked Sun Devils have beaten the Cardinal three consecutive times during the regular season and Monday's game was never in doubt even as Arizona State was held to its second-lowest output of the season.

"We were not on the glass," VanDerveer said. "We're not serious about rebounding. That's very disappointing."

Stanford (1-1, 11-3) will need to play much better against Utah (2-0, 10-3), which has already surpassed its win total from last year when injuries decimated the Utes.

Utah brings a five-game winning streak into Maples Pavilion for Friday night's 7 p.m. contest.

The Utes have outrebounded their opponents in all 13 games and are ranked third in the Pac-12 with 44.5 rebounds per game. Stanford is fourth at 43.5, though Utah ranks second in the Pac-12 with a plus-11.5 rebound margin. The Cardinal is seventh at plus-4.9.

Offensively, Stanford ranks ninth in scoring in the conference at 70.2, though last year the Cardinal averaged 69.3, its lowest scoring average since the 1986-87 season.

A week ago the Cardinal was averaging 74.6 points a game. Without a single starter reaching double figures in either of the past two games, perhaps it's just a slump.

Stanford can't stay in a slump, though, as Utah is undefeated (9-0) when scoring at least 60 points.

Starters combined to shoot 24 percent (12-for-50) in the past two games, including a 1-for-16 effort from 3-point range.

Lili Thompson has missed 14 straight 3-pointers and still averages 34.9 percent from long range. She also leads the Cardinal with 29 3-pointers. Karlie Samuelson has 28 3-pointers on 40.6 percent shooting.