LAS VEGAS – Competing in the second annual College Basketball Crown at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Stanford men’s basketball fell in overtime to West Virginia in the quarterfinals, 82-77. The Cardinal closes the season with a 20-13 record.
Ebuka Okorie scored 34 points on 13-for-23 shooting with five assists, marking his eighth 30-point outing of the season. Okorie breaks the ACC freshman record for 30-point games, passing Duke’s Marvin Bagley III (2017-18), and he ends his season ranked third all-time at Stanford in total points (719) and second in scoring average (23.2).
Aidan Cammann scored 12 points, AJ Rohosy finished with 10 points and nine rebounds and Ryan Agarwal scored eight points with eight rebounds. Benny Gealer scored six points with seven rebounds, and he moved into fourth place on Stanford’s single-season 3-pointers list with 85.
Stanford won the battle of the boards, 47-37 including 16 offensive rebounds, and it held West Virginia to just 2-for-20 shooting from beyond the arc.
The Cardinal earned its first lead of the evening at 15-13 in the first half, with a Cammann 3-pointer capping a 7-0 run. Okorie scored 11 points in the first half, but West Virginia led at the intermission, 35-29.
Okorie came alive in the second half, pouring in 21 points and scoring or assisting on 11 of Stanford’s 14 field goals in the period. Stanford held a 67-59 led with just over three minutes to play, but West Virginia rallied to tie the game in the closing seconds to send the matchup to overtime.
Agarwal gave Stanford a three-point edge early in the extra period, but West Virginia responded with a 9-2 run to take a four-point lead. Stanford had opportunities to tie the score inside the final minute, but its attempts rimmed out to give the Mountaineers the result.
Stanford competed in the postseason for the second consecutive season, marking its first back-to-back postseason tournaments since 2012-15. Smith became the first coach in program history to win 20 or more games in each of his first two seasons at Stanford, and he has guided Stanford to a .500 or better mark in consecutive seasons in the ACC as one of just five teams to accomplish the feat, along with Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Clemson.