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Senior guard Chasson Randle struggled all night to find his shot, but he got one important make in the game's final moments to turn his overall night into a special one.
After Marcus Allen grabbed an offensive rebound, Randle drilled a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds remaining in the final frame to push Stanford to a 71-69 win over Washington Wednesday night in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament.
Washington (16-15), finishing the game shooting just over 52 percent, shot the ball tremendously in the second half and took a 69-68 lead into the final two minutes. Dan Kingma missed a free throw with 29 seconds to go, giving the Cardinal a final chance to take home an emphatic victory.
On the other end, Junior forward Rosco Allen failed to grasp the lead on a jumper, but Allen fought to corral the offensive board and kicked it out to Randle. Without hesitation, he fired up the shot and converted. Andrew Andrews missed a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded, sending the sixth-seeded Cardinal (19-12) to the Pac-12 quarterfinal against third-seeded Utah.
Senior center Stefan Nastic finished the night with a team-high 21 points, while Anthony Brown added 16 and Randle added 10 in the victory. For the Huskies, who converted on 13 of 20 3-point shots in the second half, Andrews scored a game-high 22 points and Nigel Williams-Goss posted 16 in the loss. Despite making 15 of 25 shots throughout the second half of action, Washington failed to steal the victory away from the Cardinal.
The Huskies, despite going home with a heart-breaking loss, did actually manage to make some history. Well, not exactly history the team should be proud of. Washington, going 0 for 3 from the line, became the first team in the Pac-12 tournament's history to not make a single free throw.
Stanford made Nastic a threat in the post early, finding his shot in the lane and setting up his fellow teammates down the stretch. By halftime, the center already had tallied 11 points on 5 makes, while Randle had missed all three of his shot attempts and headed into the break with a slim 2 points. For a player that averages 18.8 points a game, it was without question tough to see him as such a poor contributor in the first half. The Huskies stood tied with the Cardinal at 32 as the first half came to a close.
Though Washington came out roaring in the second half, making 10 of their first 12 shots, the Cardinal kept finding a way to get it inside to Nastic and Travis and despite the contest going back and forth, the team came out on top and earned their 19th victory of an interesting season.
Stanford will face of with the #17 Utah Utes (23-7) at the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas Thursday night. Tipoff is set for 8:30 PM PT
Read more: Our friends at UW Dawg Pound give their take on last night's game here.
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