The Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball team faced their first challenge of the 2010-2011 NCAA basketball season and came up just short, falling 55-52 to the Murray State Racers. Stanford started out the season 3-0 against some fairly weak competition and they were unable to match the Racers in their first step up. Murray State led by 11 at the half and as much as 14 throughout the first half. The Cardinal cut the lead to as little as four in the second half but could never get any closer, as they fall to 3-1.
The Cardinal were led by 16 points from Dwight Powell, but the only other significant contribution came from Josh Owens, who put in 10 points. Murray State actually received an incredibly balanced effort as they only had one player score in double digits. B.J. Jenkins led the Racers with 15 points and no other player scored more than 8 points. As was the case in the first two games of the 76 Classic, this one was a pretty rough and tumble affair.
Although Stanford loss, they will face the winner of the UNLV-Tulsa matchup. UNLV went into the half up nine points and appears to have superior depth to wear down the Golden Hurricane. Whatever the matchup, we’ll be back with updates tomorrow.