Colorado holds Stanford to season low in points
McKinley Wright scored 14 points with 9 rebounds and 9 assists, and Colorado held Stanford to a season low in scoring, beating the host Cardinal 69-51 on Thursday night.
Eli Parquet added 10 points for the Buffaloes (16-5, 10-4 Pac-12) while four other players added at least eight.
Oscar da Silva poured in a game-high 22 points with three blocked shots for Stanford (12-8, 8-6). It was da Silva’s third straight 20-point game, and he was the only Cardinal scorer in double figures. Spencer Jones added eight points for Stanford, which had previously scored a low of 56 points at Oregon on Jan. 2.
Colorado ended a streaky first half — each team went on extended scoring runs — with an 11-point lead and kept it through the first eight minutes of the second half.
Stanford came as close as 49-43 on Jones’ 3-pointer before the Buffs broke away for good.
Jeriah Horne and Maddox Daniels hit back-toback 3s and Horne threw down Colorado’s lone dunk, sparking a 14-2 run that put the game away.
After the consecutive 3-pointers, Colorado’s Evan Battey stole Jones’ pass, which led to Horne’s dunk on the fastbreak and a Stanford timeout. Stanford missed twice when play resumed and Battey added a hook shot to keep Colorado’s streak going.
Wright scored backto-back layups around a Daniels steal and Colorado cruised the last four minutes.
The Buffs continue their road swing with hopes of a season sweep at Cal on Saturday. Stanford plays host to Utah on Saturday, a rematch of January’s 14-point Utah victory. UTAH WINS AS CAL MISSES LATE FREE THROW >> Cal had a shot at a win and a tie in the final seconds. Down by two, Cal’s Matt Bradley missed a 3-pointer and Andre Kelly, fouled after grabbing an offensive rebound just before the final horn, connected on just one of two foul shots with 0.7 seconds left and Utah prevailed 76-75. Timmy Allen scored 18 points, freshman Ian Martinez added a season-high 16, and Utah (9-7, 6-6 Pac-12) held on at Haas Pavilion. Bradley finished with 20 points, Grant Anticevich added 18 and Andre Kelly 17 for Cal (7-15, 2-13). Makale Foreman had 12 points.
ARIZONA 70, OREGON STATE 61>> Against a better opponent, the Arizona Wildcats might be taking a threegame losing streak into the weekend. Their thankful it was Oregon State. Arizona couldn’t make a basket to save its life, missed nine first-half free throws and turned it over 13 times yet still managed to pull out a the win over the Beavers at McKale Center. It was the ninth straight home win over OSU for Arizona (14-6, 8-6 Pac-12) and 10th overall in the past 11 meetings. But this one was a lot harder than the 98-64 thumping the Wildcats put on the Beavers last month in Corvallis, mostly because of their own doing. Arizona shot 40% but was 13 of 32 on 2-pointers, the fewest made 2-pointers in a win since beating Texas A&M 67-64 in Phoenix in December 2017. OSU is 10-9, 6-7 IN A TOP-25 GAME ... MINNESOTA 71, NO. 24 PURDUE 68>> Marcus Carr scored 19 points, Gabe Kalscheur added 16 and the Golden Gophers (127, 5-7 Big Ten) rallied late against the Boilermakers (13-8, 8-6) in Minneapolis. Brandon Johnson scored 15 points and Liam Robbins added 11 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, which trailed by five with 2 minutes to play. Trevion Williams led Purdue with 24 points and 10 rebounds. HOUSTON’S NEXT TWO GAMES POSTPONED >> The next two games on No. 8 Houston’s schedule have been postponed due to COVID-19 issues involving the opponents. The Cougars’ home games against Memphis on Sunday and East Carolina next Wednesday were postponed Thursday by the American Athletic Conference.
Aaron Ekblad and Alex Wennberg each had a goal and an assist and the Florida Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Thursday night.
Frank Vatrano, Carter Verhaeghe and Brett Connolly also scored, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 19 saves for the host Panthers.
Braden Point scored twice for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves. The Lightning had won six straight.
The teams will meet again Saturday night in Sunrise, Fla.
With captain Steven Stamkos out of the lineup with a lower-body injury, Tampa Bay lacked its usual firepower while Florida was highly effective in its offensive end.
The Panthers opened the scoring midway through the first period when Vatrano took a feed from Owen Tippett behind the net and put a one-timer past Vasilevskiy. Wennberg made it 2-0 at 8:31 of the second, with Jonathan Huberdeau getting his 300th NHL assist on the play.
Point cut it to 2-1 on a power play at 10:55 of the second, and Ekblad and Verhaeghe countered quickly with goals in a 2:01 span in the period. Point scored again on a power play 54 seconds into the third.
Connolly scored into an empty net.
PENGUINS 4, ISLANDERS 3 >> Sidney Crosby scored the only goal of the shootout to lift Pittsburgh to a comeback victory at New York.
Casey DeSmith made 26 saves for the victory, including five stops in overtime plus all three of the Islanders’ attempts in the shootout.
Mathew Barzal had given the Islanders a 3-2 late in the third period before Evgeni Malkin tied it for the Penguins with 18 seconds remaining.
BLUE JACKETS 6, BLACKHAWKS 5 >> Boone Jenner, Jack Roslovic, Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Stenlund scored during a wild third period, and Columbus stopped host Chicago’s three-game win streak.
Cam Atkinson set a franchise record with his 15th career short-handed goal as Columbus won for the third time in four games. Atkinson also had three assists, Roslovic scored twice and Kevin Stenlund had a goal and an assist in the Blue Jackets’ first game since veteran center Mikko Koivu announced his retirement Tuesday.
JETS 5, SENATORS 1 >> Connor Hellebuyck made 41 saves and Paul Stastny, Dylan DeMelo and Blake Wheeler scored second-period goals to help Winnipeg beat visiting Ottawa.
Stastny, DeMelo and Wheeler scored after Hellebuyck stopped 18 shots in a scoreless first period. The Jets improved to 4-0 this season against Ottawa, with the teams set square off again Saturday night.
Mathieu Perreault and Neal Pionk also scored for Winnipeg. Josh Norris scored for Ottawa.
Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub was out for “precautionary reasons” after an inconclusive COVID-19 test. The Senators said prior to the game that Zub’s inconclusive test result came back Thursday after he tested negative Wednesday. Josh Brown dressed in Zub’s place.
PREDATORS 3, RED WINGS 2 >> Dante Fabbro scored with 59.2 seconds remaining and Nashville snapped a three-game losing streak with a victory against visiting Detroit.
WILD RESUME ACTIVITIES >> The Minnesota Wild were cleared by the NHL to resume team activities. The Wild will practice today at Xcel Energy Center, 10 days after their most recent game. They’ve had six games postponed due to COVID-19 cases within the team.
Stephen Curry ranked first among all guards in the second round of AllStar Game fan voting Thursday, as the NBA and the players association forge ahead with plans for a downsized AllStar Weekend.
Curry, who missed last year’s showcase because of a broken hand, led guards from both conferences with 4,033,050 votes. The six-time All-Star is averaging 29.6 points per game and receiving early MVP buzz.
Ahead of Curry is Lakers forward LeBron James (4,369,533) and Kevin Durant (4,234,433). No other player cracked 4 million votes, with Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (3,282,478) and 76ers center Joel Embiid (3,022,105) rounding out the top five.
While Curry’s status as a leading vote-getter is not a surprise, Klay Thompson’s inclusion among the top Western Conference guards is unexpected. Thompson moved up to eighth with 225,169 votes after coming in at 10th last week. That puts him ahead of CJ McCollum, who averaged 26.7 points in 13 games before going down with a left foot injury.
All-Star voting runs through Feb. 16, with the results to be announced two days later. Starters are selected by a combination of the fan vote (50%) and media and player vote. Reserves will be determined by a vote of the league’s coaches.
The All-Star Game is expected to be held March 7 in Atlanta.
WISEMAN STILL IN PAIN >> Rookie center James Wiseman, who has missed the past five games with a sprained left wrist, will be re-evaluated in another 7-10 days, the Warriors announced.
Coach Steve Kerr said scans of Wiseman’s wrist did not reveal any longterm issues, but that the 19-year-old is still in pain.
Wiseman, the No. 2 pick in November’s draft, suffered the injury on a dunk attempt in Golden State’s Jan. 30 win over the Detroit Pistons.
Kevon Looney (left ankle sprain), who has missed the past four games, will be reevaluated in a week.