Rosco Allen’s drive lifts Stanford past Arizona State

By Tom FitzGeraldUpdated Jan 23, 2016 11:13 p.m.

Two nights after one of his coldest shooting performances, Rosco Allen caught fire Saturday night.

Stanford’s senior forward, who had shot 1-for-12 in scoring four points against No. 12 Arizona, hit 8 of 14 shots for 24 points, including a layup with five seconds left, to give the Cardinal a 75-73 win over Arizona State at Maples Pavilion.

“Our strategy was first to get it to Marcus” Allen, Rosco Allen said. “We were in the same situation against Arkansas, and we drew up the same play. They did a good job denying Marcus so I flashed back to the ball, looked at the clock, and knew I had enough time to get it all the way to the rim.”

Article continues below this ad

A foul shot by Dorian Pickens of Stanford tied it 73-73 with 36 seconds left. ASU’s Tra Holder missed a three-pointer with 15 seconds to go, and Stanford was awarded the ball with 8.4 seconds left after a long officials’ review.

The wait gave Stanford a chance to draw up an offensive play and set up their defense in case ASU was given the ball.

Rosco Allen drove past Willie Atwood and Savon Goodman to sink the basket.

“He stayed aggressive, and our shooters were where they were supposed to be,” coach Johnny Dawkins said. “It was just very good execution down the stretch.”

Bobby Hurley, in his first year as coach of Arizona State, said, “We knew that they were just going to try and get it in and push the basketball and try and attack the basket. ... It was a great drive.”

Article continues below this ad

The Cardinal (11-7, 4-3 Pac-12) had 13 points by Marcus Allen and 11 by Michael Humphrey in scoring their 10th win over ASU in 13 meetings.

The Sun Devils (11-9, 1-6) were led by Holder with 18 points. They didn’t take a lead until a Holder basket put them up 71-70 with 1:41 left. They also led 73-72 but couldn’t connect again.

Stanford was given a big lift by senior reserve forward Grant Verhoeven. A 0.9-points per game scorer in his career, he scored nine points, including the first three-pointer of his career.

“I’ve been working on it. I was open, so I shot it, and I didn’t really have to think about it,” he said.

Article continues below this ad

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald

Jan 23, 2016|Updated Jan 23, 2016 11:13 p.m.

Tom FitzGerald

Sports Reporter

Tom FitzGerald has been the Stanford beat writer for The San Francisco Chronicle since 2009. He also covers men’s and women’s basketball and many other Stanford sports.

He also covers motor sports in the Bay Area and wrote about the America's Cup regatta in San Francisco in 2013, during which Oracle Team USA made one of the greatest comebacks in sports history to beat Emirates Team New Zealand.

Among the many momentous games he has covered were the 49ers' victory over Dallas in the 1982 NFC Championship Game, which featured "The Catch'' by Dwight Clark, and the U.S. hockey team’s 1980 Olympic upset of the Soviet Union in Lake Placid, N.Y. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, he rode the bobsled run with members of the U.S. team for a first-person story. He also rode on Russell Coutts’ Oracle Team USA catamaran in 2012 and in an Indy car with legendary Mario Andretti in 2014 for other first-person stories.

For 15 years he wrote a popular sports humor column called "Top of the Sixth" (later re-titled "Open Season"). A weekly version of the column was nationally syndicated in as many as 50 daily newspapers.

He has a degree in political science from the University of Massachusetts. He lives in Benicia.