Men’s basketball tops Dartmouth in return to Maples

A 15–day break for final exams didn’t do too much to slow down Stanford men’s basketball as the team handily took care of Dartmouth by a 64-50 margin.

Rosco Allen (right) led the Cardinal with 17 points in their 64-50 win over Dartmouth, a rematch of the 1942 national championship game that Stanford won, its only title to date. (BILL DALLY/stanfordphoto.com)

In a rare rematch of the 1942 national championship game in which Stanford captured its only men’s basketball national title, the Cardinal put in a controlling performance on both ends of the floor that proved too much for the overmatched Big Green. Stanford held Dartmouth to just 38 percent shooting on the evening, denying its opponent’s hopes for its first win against a Pac-12 program since 1971.

Stanford exploited its superior height to dominate the interior, building a 28-10 advantage in points in the paint and a 17-11 edge in offensive rebounds. Dartmouth attempted to compensate for its inability to establish any consistency at the rim by throwing up 21 3-point shots, but the Cardinal always seemed to have the answer whenever the Big Green began building any momentum from deep.

Senior Rosco Allen topped Stanford’s scoring charts with 17 points, while sophomore Reid Travis bounced back from a slow weekend at the Barclays Center in November by adding 14 points and 7 rebounds. Senior Grant Verhoeven and sophomore Michael Humphrey each added 2 blocks and freshman Cameron Walker put in several more largely error-free minutes at the point to help give Stanford its best turnover margin since the team’s opening-weekend blowout of Charleston Southern.

Stanford started the game quickly, building a 10-point lead just under eight minutes into the first half. The teams more or less traded baskets after then, but the Cardinal’s 28-6 advantage in free-throw attempts prevented the Big Green from drawing close enough mount a serious comeback attempt.

The Cardinal’s victory marked the kickoff of a seven-game homestand for the team, which will see the Cardinal play in Maples Pavilion through the first weekend of conference play. The team returns to action next Tuesday against DePaul, in which it will look to earn some revenge for the Blue Demons’ surprise upset over the Cardinal when the two met in November 2014.

Stanford tips off against DePaul at 7 p.m. Tuesday on Fox Sports 1.

Contact Andrew Mather at amather ‘at’ stanford.edu.