No. 3 Stanford Rolls Along

January 22, 1999 / 2:01 AM EST / AP

For a while, Washington State's zone defense looked pretty good. Then Stanford ripped it apart with a relentless transition game.

Outscoring the Cougars 64-29 in the second half, No. 3 Stanford routed Washington State 94-45 Thursday night for the Cardinal's second-biggest win ever at Maples Pavilion. The 49-point margin is second only to last year's school record 53-point win here over Lehigh.

"We were stagnant in the first half," Stanford guard Arthur Lee said. "A zone will make you do that because guys are playing an area. When we pushed them out of the zone with our transition game, that was the difference. Guys were feeling it in the second half. We were going with the flow and you saw the result."

Mark Madsen, Tim Young and David Moseley scored 15 points apiece in helping Stanford to its 12th straight win. It's the second longest such streak under coach Mike Montgomery, whose Final Four squad put together an 18-game run to start last season.

Lee added 12 points and Kris Weems had 11 for Stanford (16-2, 6-0 Pac-10), which held the Cougars (8-9, 2-4) to a season-low in points in beating them a sixth straight time.

Jarron Collins had 13 rebounds to lead the Cardinal, who outrebounded Washington State 40-23.

Up by 14 at halftime, Stanford's defense fueled an explosive second-half start that overwhelmed the Cougars, who endured their worst loss in 34 years.

Young opened with a driving layup and Lee had consecutive steals, turning one into a fastbreak layup and dishing off to Weems for another layup during a 24-9 burst that swelled Stanford's lead to 54-25 with 14:18 left. Madsen made two free throws after missing his first six and also scored on two dunks and an alley-oop pass before Young finished the spree with consecutive three-point plays. Both times, he drew fouls driving the lane.

"We couldn't stay in the zone," Washington State coach Kevin Eastman said. "We were worried about going man-to-man with them, and when we did, they suddenly got more aggressive and just outplayed us in the second half.

"It was one of those things where we couldn't stop the flood once it got started. When the crowd started to get into it, that just magnified everything."

Stanford began using its reserves but it got worse for Washington State as it fell behind 62-32 on Moseley's dunk with 11:05 remaining and 87-36 on Mark Seaton's breakaway jam with 4:24 left.

Offensively, Washington State came in as the second-highest scoring team in the conference behind Arizona. But Stanford put the clamps on the Cougars with a smothering man-to-man defense that held Washington State to 16 points in the first half on 6-of-24 shooting (25 percent), including 0-for-7 from 3-point range.

The Cougars entered averaging a Pac-10 high eight 3-pointers a game but finished just 1-for-18. Jan-Michael Thomas was the lone Cougar in double figures with 10 points.

" must admit Washington State surprised us by coming out in a zone," Montgomery said. "It got us to standing around a little bit but Art got us ignited with his defense plus his 3s.

"In the second half, we pushed Washington State out of its zone and things went down hill pretty quickly from there."

Despite going 4-for-12 from the free throw line, Stanford led 30-16 at halftime, closing with a 12-3 run. Lee connected from 3-point range twice in the spurt, beating the buzzer with his second 3-pointer to finish a fast break that began when Kojo Mensah-Bonsu blew a layup.