Sanders leads Stanford to 93-89 overtime win over Green Bay
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) Senior guard Christian Sanders returned to his high school roots and made the most of the opportunity. He helped Stanford open the season on a good note.
Sanders scored eight of his 23 points in overtime, Rosco Allen hit a key 3-pointer and Stanford beat Wisconsin-Green Bay 93-89 Friday night in a preliminary game of the Preseason NIT.
Allen had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Cardinal, who won its sixth straight season-opener. Reid Travis added 16, and Dorian Pickens had 14. Michael Humphrey added 13 points and 11 rebounds and Malcom Allen scored 10.
''The first half was pretty awful,'' Rosco Allen said. ''They threw that press at us and we didn't handle it as well as we should have.''
Sanders, who played point guard in high school, felt comfortable moving back into the position. He's had about two weeks, since Robert Cartwright broke a bone in his forearm, to relearn the spot.
''With Robert going down, the team needed me to play the point,'' Sanders said. ''We were searching for ourselves early in the game. We're going to keep on learning.''
Carrington Love scored 32 points, which included a 6-of-9 performance from long range, to lead the Phoenix, who had their five-game opening day streak end.
''For a segment of the game we got stagnant,'' Love said. ''Their best players made plays late in regulation and in overtime that they weren't making earlier.''
Charles Cooper, who scored 19 points, hit a field goal and free throw with 3.4 seconds left to tie the game at 74 and Pickens missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send it into overtime.
''They just made a few more plays than we did,'' Phoenix coach Linc Darner said. ''They did some things in the second half that really hurt us defensively. They made some adjustments.''
Pickens scored five points in the final 2:27 to give the Cardinal a 72-68 advantage.
Love's third 3-pointer of the night, five minutes into the second half, gave Green Bay a 14-point edge at 48-34.
The Cardinal went on a 21-7 run over the next seven minutes, drawing even on a Travis jumper with 8:05 remaining to play.
''We're trying to find out who we are as a team,'' Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. ''We shared the ball and that's what we need to do. We have to do it by committee.''
The Phoenix used a 13-1 run during a five-minute stretch of the first half, punctuated by consecutive 3-pointers from Love.
The Cardinal were 0-for-4 from the floor, turned the ball over four times and made 1-of-4 free throws over that span.
Green Bay eventually took a 38-28 halftime lead.
TIP INS
Wisconsin-Green Bay: Linc Darner made his Division I coaching debut after nine years at Division II Florida Southern, where he guided the Mocs to the NCAA Division II national title last year.
Stanford: The Pac-12 announced that Stanford and Harvard will open the 2016-17 season with a game in Shanghai, China on Nov. 12 (Nov. 11 in the U.S.) . ''I was fortunate to be a part of the coaching staff for the United States Olympic Team that captured the Gold medal in 2008 and have very fond memories of China,'' Dawkins said.
UP NEXT
Wisconsin-Green Bay travels to East Tennessee State on Tuesday, with a tip-off time scheduled for 5 a.m. local time. The game is part of the ESPN Tip-Off Marathon as well as the Preseason NIT.
Stanford hosts Charleston Southern on Sunday as part of the Preseason NIT.
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AP college basketball website: http://www.collegebasketball.ap.org/
