It’s not often that senior C.J. Wilcox delivers a clinker, but he had a big one Saturday night in Palo Alto, scoring only nine points in Washington’s 79-67 loss to the Stanford Cardinal at Maples Pavilion. It marked the first time this season that Wilcox failed to reach double figures and, as a result, the undersized Huskies found themselves overmatched.
They finished 0-2 on their second Pac-12 road trip and fell to 11-8 overall and 3-3 in conference play with the Oregon schools due into Alaska Airlines Arena next week.
Wilcox, who scored 27 points in a Washington win over Stanford last January, managed nine points on 4-for-13 shooting, including 1-for-6 beyond the 3-point line. Wilcox scored six of his nine early, finally connected on a 3-ball at 10:47 of the second half, and nothing after that. He entered the game averaging 20.3, second highest in the Pac-12.
Meanwhile, Stanford guard Chasson Randle blew through the Huskies for a career-high-tying 33 points. Getting into the lane all night, Randle made 11 of 15 from the floor and 11 of 13 from the free throw line, where the Cardinal dominated, making 24 of 34 to Washington’s 6-for-9.
With Wilcox misfiring the Huskies converted just 43.1 percent of their shots. As a result, Stanford recorded only its second win over Washington in the past 11 meetings between the teams.
“They got to the foul line 34 times, we got there nine times. There can’t be that much of a gap in getting to the line. We also didn’t do a good job of keeping Randle out of the paint,” said head coach Lorenzo Romar. “That’s not a formula that’s going to do it for us. We’re supposed to be a team that protects the driving line, but we just didn’t do a good job. We just failed to do collectively as a team what we were supposed to do on defense. Obviously, we have to get better.”
Stanford converted 14 of 17 free throws in the first 20 minutes and took a 41-36 halftime lead as the Huskies trailed by a five-to-seven-point margin throughout the half. Washington attempted only five foul shots in the opening 20 minutes. Wilcox went 3-for-8 from the floor and missed all three of his 3-point attempts. Randle had 14 points for Stanford.
Randle nailed a 3-pointer at 13:07 of the second half to give Stanford a 52-43 lead and came back with a layup less than 45 seconds later for a 54-43 lead. The Cardinal and Huskies traded baskets the rest of the way, and UW could not make a dent with Wilcox continuing to miss and Perris Blackwell drawing his fourth foul. Stanford had a 13-3 run in the final three minutes to close it out.
Nigel Williams-Goss led Washington with 17 points and six assists and Shawn Kemp Jr. came off the bench for his biggest effort of the season, 13 points and six rebounds. Andrew Andrews, Washington’s second-leading scorer, had one of his poorest shooting nights of the season, making 4 of 13 and finishing with eight points before fouling out.
The Huskies outrebounded Stanford 34-33 and committed only six turnovers, but couldn’t overcome Stanford’s advantage of the free throw line.
Washington is off until Thursday when the Huskies host Oregon.