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Stanford holds on against No. 11 Oregon

By Jake Curtis, The Sports Xchange

STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford forward Michael Humphrey was limited to 12 minutes because of foul trouble and did not score a single point Saturday, but he came up with the play of the game in the closing seconds to ruin a late-game rally by 11th-ranked Oregon.

With the Cardinal leading by two, the 6-foot-9 Humphrey blocked a layup attempt by Oregon forward Dillon Brooks with five seconds left, helping Stanford preserve a 76-72 victory over Oregon at Maples Pavilion.

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"Mike saved us; it's that simple," said Stanford forward Rosco Allen, who tied a career high with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field, including 4 of 5 from three-point range.

Stanford (12-11, 5-7 Pac-12) nearly blew a 10-point lead with less than nine minutes left as Oregon tied the score with under a minute remaining.

But Oregon, which lost to California 83-63 on Thursday, ended up dropping both games on its trip to the San Francisco Bay Area and has lost two in a row for the first time this season.

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"I'm really disappointed," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "Our field goal percentage in both games (Cal and Stanford) was really bad, our ball movement at times was not good. We just didn't play very well in either game. I'm not sure why. ... We didn't have much pop."

The Ducks (20-6, 9-4) remain in first place in the Pac-12 but are just a half-game ahead of second-place Arizona, which is 8-4 in the conference and on Sunday plays USC, which is 7-4.

"We still have everything in front of us, but we do have to turn it around," Altman said.

The Cardinal managed to make enough plays at the end to end a four-game losing streak and avoid their first five-game skid in 23 years.

"We know how to finish games now," said Stanford guard Dorian Pickens, who scored 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and made both his 3-point attempts.

Forward Grant Verhoeven made just his second start of the season for Stanford and collected a career-high 13 points.

Brooks had 24 points and guard Tyler Dorsey added 14, but Oregon could not quite finish off its comeback against Stanford, which was 9 of 13 from 3-point range and hit 55.3 percent of its shots for the game.

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Stanford increased its four-point halftime lead to 10 points on Rosco Allen's 3-pointer with 15:58 remaining, and the Cardinal still held a 10-point advantage at 57-47 when guard Christian Sanders scored on a layup at the 8:43 mark.

Oregon got the margin down to four points on forward Dwayne Benjamin's steal and layup with 2:43 remaining, and Brooks reduced the deficit to 72-70 on a 3-pointer with 1:23 to go.

The Ducks tied the score at 72 with 51.8 seconds left on two free throws by Brooks, but Rosco Allen made one of two foul shots with 31.7 seconds left to put Stanford ahead by one.

After guard Marcus Allen made one of two free throws with 13.7 seconds left to increase the Stanford lead to two, Humphrey, who has been bothered by a bruised knee for some time, blocked Brooks' driving layup attempt with two hands with five seconds left.

"Game-saving play," Stanford coach John Dawkins said.

Marcus Allen then hit two free throws with 3.0 seconds left to seal it.

"I feel like right now we don't know what we're doing; we're playing individual," Oregon forward Chris Boucher said after being limited to six points. "Everybody's coming at us, we're in first, but we need to work together to fix this. Everything's falling off, man."

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Until the Ducks' closing burst, the story of the game had been Rosco Allen. He hit two 3-point shots in the first three minutes as the Cardinal made their first four 3-pointers to grab an early 13-8 lead.

"If we can get him good looks, he's one of the best shooters in the conference, probably in the country," Dawkins said.

Allen was coming off a game in which he was just 1 of 6 from 3-point range in a 62-50 home loss to Oregon State -- the Cardinal's fourth straight loss, all by at least 12 points.

"I'm proud of the way our guys bounded back," Dawkins said.

NOTES: Stanford G Christian Sanders had 10 assists Saturday. ... Based on RPI as of Saturday morning, Oregon has played the toughest schedule in the country and Stanford has played the second toughest. ... Oregon was No. 1 in the nation in the RPI rankings when it faced Cal on Thursday. It began Saturday at No. 3. ... Stanford opened its Pac-12 schedule with a victory over Utah, then ranked No. 21, but lost seven of its next 10 conference games before Saturday. ... Oregon beat Stanford 71-58 earlier this season in Eugene, Ore.

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