Stanford Defeats Oregon State, 103-101, in 4 OTs

but I saw everything from 5 minutes left in the second half. No one scored in the final minute of regulation. Stanford’s second-to-last possession was a zoo which ended in Angus Brandt getting fouled, but he missed both FTs to keep the game tied. On the final possession, Powell missed a tough shot and OSU rebounded. For reasons known only to him, Eric Moreland decided he was going to try to move the ball down the court with a second and a half to go instead of taking it to overtime. Owens stole the ball and tossed in a layup that left his fingers literally hundredths of a second after the clock expired. Basket wiped off, OT commenced.

First OT the teams traded leads back and forth, with Mann fouling out about halfway through. Randle had a FT to put Stanford ahead with 22 seconds left, but missed it. OSU had a bad offensive possession and turned it over with just under five to go; Stanford inbounded to Anthony Brown, who took a 35-footer that looked good but was about six inches long and died on the heel of the backboard.

I thought Stanford would put it away in the second OT when they had a three point lead, but OSU had two drive-and-dishes to Joe Burton which were way too easy to keep them in it. Silly foul far from the basket allowed Jared Cunningham to give OSU the lead. Stanford got it back on a Randle inbounds play after a crazy possession where they missed two wide-open looks for 3. Much less silly foul put Burton at the line, where he equalized the score. Final possession for Stanford wasn’t good— Randle dribbled into trouble and got stuffed from behind by Moreland.

Third OT was dull. OSU fouled out Bright and scored three points on free throws. No other scoring until Brown hit a stepback 3 to tie off a broken play. OSU botched the final possession again as they settled for a circus shot by Starks.

Stanford dominated the fourth OT and could have put it away sooner. Randle knocked down an open look and had a sweet backdoor score early on, then Stanford missed several open looks including a bunny layup, and also missed two free throws. OSU’s offense degenerated as they inexplicably kept looking to Jared Cunningham to score, despite him obviously being totally gassed. Finally they inserted Roberto Nelson who reenergized the offense, and got within one. Cardinal pushed it back to three with another Randle score. Huestis fouled Nelson on a jump shot, which seemed like it would send the game to a fifth OT, but Nelson missed the first of three free throws so Stanford still led. Stanford inbounded but turned it over, leading to one of the craziest offensive possessions I’ve seen, with the ball ping-ponging all over the backboard for what seemed like ten minutes before Huestis came up with the ball and was literally tackled. Initially a ref called a flagrant foul, but it was downgraded to a personal. Huestis made one of two; OSU took the ball to halfcourt with 2.5 seconds left and called timeout. They inbounded and got a very good look from Nelson that went just long at the buzzer; I thought it was in.