FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Stanford kept it simple. Run a pick-and-roll with Anthony Goods as an option on the outside and let the shots fall where they may.
The Stanford senior made the plan work by connecting on his first two 3-point attempts. When Colorado State never stopped the play or Goods, the Cardinal never stopped running it.
“It was working because their bigs were sagging off and our guys were getting me back the ball,” Goods said. “Once I came off a screen, I took an extra move and got open.”
Goods scored 23 points as Stanford remained unbeaten with a 74-63 victory over struggling Colorado State on Sunday night.
Stanford opened the year with five wins, the most since starting the 2003-04 season with a 26-game winning streak.
“Anthony does such a good job of moving without the basketball,” Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. “And he makes good reads off screens.”
Josh Owens added 14 points for the Cardinal (5-0), who hadn’t played since beating Colorado, 76-62, on Nov. 29. They showed little rust. Landry Field and Lawrence Hill also scored in double figures, adding 11 and 10 points respectively.
“The rust didn’t show because of how they played against us, making us defend people,” Dawkins said. “It also helped that we took some time off, but when we practiced, we practiced hard.”
Marcus Walker led Colorado State (3-7) with 15 points. The Rams suffered their fifth straight loss and hurt themselves with 17 turnovers and the inability to stop Goods and the Stanford offense.
“You have to get to him (Goods),” Colorado State coach Tim Miles said. “We just didn’t get our weakside help.”
Goods’ layup in the last 55 seconds put Stanford ahead 33-32 at the half. It was Goods, who had 13 in the first half, hitting two 3-pointers early, that gave the Cardinal a 15-6 advantage.
Colorado State got untracked and with a 15-5 run and a jump shot by Willis Gardner, pulled ahead 21-20. Walker’s driving layup gave the Rams the lead, 32-31, before Goods, who has his own prescription for getting open, answered with his own basket.
“You have to lull them to sleep and then come hard off screens,” Goods said. “I make a fake like the play isn’t for me and then I bust off hard and make a play.”
It was more of the same at the start of the second half with other contributors and Colorado State mistakes. Goods hit a 3-pointer and Fields capped a 13-4 run with two layups off turnovers that put Stanford up 45-35 early in the second half.
“We turned it over seven times in our first 12 possessions in the second half,” said Miles. “The times we did get it inside, we couldn’t finish.”
Two free throws by Walker closed the gap to 45-39, but Drew Shiller’s 3-pointer got Stanford’s lead back to double digits, 54-41, with 9:56 to go.
Colorado State got it back to 58-54 on a rebound basket by Andy Ogide with 6:47 remaining. Hill and Green scored inside to push Stanford’s lead to 62-54.
The Rams closed to within 64-59 on two free throws by Dan Vandervieren. Goods sealed it with a layup and free throw with 2:51 left that made it 69-59.
“We did a good job of sharing the basketball and making the extra pass to hit open guys for shots,” Dawkins said. “That is a key to good offense.”
And running the pick-and-roll with Goods as an option.
