On Jan. 13, 1986, Oregon's Anthony Taylor and Keith Balderston combined for 42 points in an 83-69 win against Stanford at Maples Pavilion. Taylor went on to play one NBA season for the expansion Miami Heat, Balderston went on to medical school, and the Stanford men's basketball program went on to win the next 24 games against the Ducks in Palo Alto.
The streak ended tonight in ugly fashion for the Cardinal, which dropped its fourth straight, 67-59.
Stanford erased a 9-2 deficit to start the game, went into halftime tied at 29, and took a 38-32 lead early in the second half before going cold and falling behind by 10. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Anthony Brown and Jeremy Green pulled Stanford to within 56-52 with 5 minutes to play. The Cardinal trailed by the same margin with 1 minute remaining, when Brown stepped to the line for a pair of free throws.
After Brown made one of two, Oregon's E.J. Singler, who was taunted with chants of "You're not Kyle!" from the 6th Man Club, all but iced the game with a 3-point play to put Oregon ahead 63-57. The younger brother of Duke's Kyle Singler added five assists and three steals. Joevan Catron led the Ducks with 15 points and 6 rebounds, while Jay-R Strowbridge added 13 and Malcolm Armstead provided a spark off the bench.
Despite shooting a respectable 42 percent, Stanford was held under 60 points for the seventh consecutive game. Freshman Dwight Powell did a little bit of everything (14 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 blocks) except make his free throws (2-for-7). As a team, Stanford was 13-for-21 from the charity stripe.
Green finished with 13 points, but was only 3-for-10 from the field, and is shooting 29% in his last seven games. Josh Owens, who entered the game as Stanford's second-leading scorer, took three shots and scored four points in 23 minutes. Owens wasn't in foul trouble, so why was he on the bench for so much of the game? From Jake Curtis' game story:
"We didn’t find Josh enough on the inside," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "We have to be patient in getting it to him. We have to understand his value."
Dawkins said he kept Owens out of the game over the final 11:24 to get more perimeter firepower. Afterall, the Cardinal was unable to get the ball inside to Owens anyway.
Stanford will look to snap its skid on Saturday against Oregon State, which got pounded at Cal tonight.