Cardinal Rally Downs Duke
With one picture-perfect fallaway bank shot, Casey Jacobsen struck a blow for Stanford , West Coast basketball and his own reputation.
Jacobsen banked in a jumper with 3.6 seconds left as No. 3 Stanford roared back from an 11-point deficit in the final four minutes to beat top-ranked Duke 84-83 Thursday night at the Pete Newell Challenge.
"Now there'll be a new No. 1, and we'll see who it will be," Jacobsen said with a grin.
According to Jacobsen, who tied his career high with 26 points, Stanford's first victory over a top-ranked team since 1988 was more than a thrilling comeback win in front of a deafening crowd.
It was redemption for the Cardinal (9-0), who are still stinging from last season's collapse against North Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Stanford often feels overlooked on the West Coast despite its perennially high national ranking.
After beating Duke, that respect shouldn't take long to arrive.
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"We don't get a chance to play a lot of East Coast teams, and we wanted everyone out there to know what Stanford basketball was all about."
It's about heart, apparently. After being outrun and outplayed all night, the Cardinal put together a stunning rally that had everyone from Newell to Jerry West to Stanford alum Tiger Woods standing and cheering.
"There's an aura Duke has because they play with such extreme confidence," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "We need to develop that ... and this was a big step."
Down 77-6 with four minutes to play, Stanford finally sensed fatigue catching up to the Blue Devils' seven-man rotation. The Cardinal made an 11-1 run and tied it at 79 on Julius Barnes' layup with 1:09 left, but Mike Dunleavy's leaner with 51 seconds left reclaimed the lead for Duke (10-1).
"We didn't convert our last few chances, and that put us in a position to lose," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We came out ready to play, but we just missed at the end."
The Blue Devils led 83-82 when Dunleavy was fouled with 14 seconds left, but he missed two free throws to give Stanford one last shot. With calm and precision, Jacobsen came off a screen, drove the left side of the court and kissed a fallaway shot off the glass.
"We did everything we had to do until the last four minutes," said Dunleavy, who had 13 points. "I thought I'd make (the free throws), and we'd get out of here with a win."
Duke rushed back down the court, but Jason Williams missed a driving layup, and Nate James' follow-up shot came after the buzzer. Woods and his friends hugged each other, and the Cardinal hugged each other to celebrate Stanford's second victory over a No. 1 team in school history.
California faced Georgia in the second game of the Challenge, but all eyes at Oakland Arena were focused on the Bay Area's most high-profile college hoops matchup in years. The game lived up to every bit of its hype.
For most of the game, the Cardinal appeared to be on the verge of suffering a blowout loss. The game was expected to be a contest of wills between Stanford's powerful inside game and Duke's up-tempo style, but the Blue Devils jumped to a big early lead, then continually threatened to pull away in the second half.
"We were kind of timid to start the game, and we shouldn't have been," Montgomery said. "I thought as the game went on, we got accustomed to playing at that level."
Jacobsen kept the Cardinal within striking distance by shooting 11-of-19 from all spots on the field.
Shane Battier scored 26 points for Duke before fouling out with 35 seconds left. Carlos Boozer also fouled out with five minutes left.
Williams had 26 points and played stifling defense, but the confident, balanced offensive club that dominated the first 35 minutes disappeared during Stanford's comeback. Duke shot just 29 percent in the second half.
Jason Collins had 10 points and 15 rebounds for Stanford. His twin brother, Jarron, added 16 points and six rebounds as Stanford improved to 19-0 in games the twins have started together.
Newell, the 85-year-old coaching icon who led Cal to the 1959 NCAA title and coached the Olympic team in 1960, watched from courtside with Jerry West and Oscar Robertson. A few seats down the row, Woods and his college roommate, Jerry Chang, cheered on the Cardinal.
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