A couple of pity claps were all that could be heard in Welsh-Ryan Arena after Northwestern's disappointing 71-60 loss to Stanford on Thursday night. The applause that came from the lingering crowd and echoed into the rafters was heard because an upset opportunity had been spoiled by the center on the 20th best team in the country.
Robin Lopez - who scored 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked five shots - dominated the game physically on defense and ruled the offensive end as king of the paint.
"Lopez is a pretty athletic kid," coach Bill Carmody said. "He covers the floor pretty quickly and he can block almost anything."
Although NU won the opening tip and scored the game's first two points, the Cardinal were in control during the early stages Thursday. After Stanford guard Mitch Williams made a 3 at the 16:14 mark of the first half, the Cardinal looked almost unstoppable as they seized all momentum with a demoralizing 11-0 run.
But with guard Craig Moore's 3-pointer at 13:16, the Cats began a run of their own. Following a flurry of turnovers, Moore stole the ball from Stanford forward Landry Fields and found guard Sterling Williams on a backdoor cut to trim the lead to four. Two buckets later, NU had not only ignited their offense but the crowd as well, as NU tied the contest at 14.
"We started slow and had some droughts at times," Williams said. "But there were times where we came alive."
Soon, the game became a sloppy version of tug-of-war, with points being exchanged in between long internvals filled with turnovers and steals from both teams. But in such a game, it is usually the team that has the strongest and tallest athletes who have the bigger muscles and better foresight to find the hole as well as other open men that usually succeeds.
This is when a player of the stature and aggressiveness of Lopez takes over.
With four minutes remaining in the first half, Lopez emphatically blocked a shot from forward Nikola Baran - his third on Baran - sprinted to the other end of the court and soared for a thunderous alley-oop.
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michael
posted 11/16/07 @ 1:00 PM CST
It's actually Mitch Johnson. I don't think anyone on Stanford has the name Williams, but since both are common names, I guess it's easy to get mixed up. (Continued…)
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