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Arizona State Beats No. 4 Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. - Arizona State's long struggle against the nation's top teams was rewarded Saturday.

Getting 27 points from Jeremy Veal, including nine in overtime, Arizona State snapped a 14-game losing streak against ranked teams by defeating No. 4 Stanford 90-87 Saturday.

"This is huge," Veal said. "We've come close to ranked teams before but today we came out and finished the job. We had heart out there and a lot of desire."

It was the Cardinal's second straight loss after opening the season with a school-record 18 consecutive wins. Stanford (18-2, 7-2 Pac-10) lost 93-75 to No. 6 Arizona on Thursday.

"This is tough to take," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said.
"We played well enough to win. We weren't prepared mentally to the fact that Arizona State was as good as they are. We couldn't answer them. I thought we were flat to start and not ready mentally to play. They've got good athletes that hurt us."

The victory for Arizona State (14-8, 4-5) was its first against a ranked team since March 11, 1995, when it defeated No. 12 Arizona 103-98. Since then, the Sun Devils had lost 14 straight to ranked opponents, including four this season.

"This shows you what can happen on any given night and what can happen if a group follows the script," Arizona State coach Don Newman said. "We played ranked teams this year before but we haven't gotten over the hump and we wanted to come in here focused. And today, on this floor, we were the better bunch."

The overtime loss on its home floor was the first for Stanford since the 1985-86 season, when the Sun Devils beat the Cardinal here 77-75.

"We made some decisions that were not wise and we paid a price," Montgomery said.

Bobby Lazor's 3-foot jumper with 47 seconds remaining in regulation put Arizona State up 74-73 and Veal added two free throws with 28 seconds left. Ryan Mendez of Stanford connected on a 3-pointer with 18 seconds to play to tie it at 76-all and Veal missed at the buzzer with a running jumper, sending the game into overtime.

The Sun Devils opened an 83-77 lead in the extra period, with Veal scoring five of their first seven points, including a 3-pointer.

But Stanford fought back with two 3-pointers by Arthur Lee, the last coming with four seconds left to pull Stanford to 88-87. But on a long inbounds pass, Mendez was called for an intentional foul on Veal and he made both free throws with two seconds left. The Sun Devils retained possession and time ran out.

Lazor added 22 points for Arizona State, while Mike Batiste had 17.

Tim Young's 24 points led Stanford, while Lee had 13 and Kris Weems and Mendez had 11 apiece.

Mark Madsen, who missed Stanford's last eight games while recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot, played for the first time in a month and had 10 points. Ironically, his replacement for the last month, Pete Van Elswyk, sprained a shoulder late in the first half and did not eturn.

Up by two at halftime, Stanford stretched its lead to 49-40 with a 9-2 burst to start the half. Young had six points in the spurt and Weems hit a 3-pointer.

The Sun Devils worked their way back, pulling to 66-63 on a driving layup by Ahlon Lewis with 5:23 remaining. After a layup by Madsen, the Sun Devils ran off seven straight points, tying it on a 3-pointer by Batiste and going in front 70-68 on two free throws by Lewis with 2:50 left.

©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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