KEVIN KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore Salim Stoudamire was held to three points on 1-of-5 shooting last night against Stanford after lighting up Kansas for 32 points on Saturday in Kansas.

Basketball suffers first conference loss against unranked Stanford

There goes a chance at an undefeated Pacific 10 Conference season.

Stanford came into a packed McKale Center last night and stunned the top ranked Arizona men's basketball team 82-77.

This marks the third consecutive year that the Cardinal has defeated the Wildcats on their home floor öö the loss is the first at home for UA since Stanford's triumph last season.

"We have had some great wins on their court and they have had some on our court," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "We can't make the number of mistakes that we made with the ball. We have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. We just made to many mistakes."

Arizona (15-2 overall, 7-1 Pac-10) has been unable to sustain a consistent level of play for the entirety of a game and the same was true against the Cardinal (15-5, 6-2 Pac-10).

"We made a great run at the end," Olson said. " But our energy level was not there when we needed it the most."

The Wildcats dug themselves a 14-point hole with 11:39 remaining in the game.

With their first home loss of the season staring them in the face, the Wildcats turned on the on switch and began to play like the No. 1 team in the country.

Since sophomore guard Salim Stoudamire was struggling and battling foul trouble, Olson turned to his two freshmen, Hassan Adams and Andre Iguodala to bring high energy and defensive intensity off the bench.

With a line up of the two freshmen, Jason Gardner, Luke Walton and Channing Frye, Arizona proceeded to go on a 20-3 run to give Arizona a 65-62 lead with 7:18 remaining.

The lead marked the first time the Wildcats had the lead since 3-2 at the 18:11 mark in the first half.

With the crowd on its feet, and Arizona looking to put the Cardinal away, Stanford kept its composure.

With Arizona owning its biggest lead of the game at 65-62, Stanford came down and Julius Barnes hit a game tying three pointer.

After a jumper by Walton gave Arizona a two-point lead, the Cardinal was unable to inbound the ball and called for a five second call.

On the proceeding possession, Walton missed a wide open dunk that could given the Wildcats a four point lead with six minutes remaining, but following the miss, Stanford came down and Matt Lottich hit one of his game high five three pointers to give the Cardinal a one point lead at 67-68.

Lottich finished with a game high 23 points to go with five rebounds and four assists.

It was Lottich again that stuck a dagger to Arizona as he hit a three-pointer to extend the lead to five with under a minute remaining in the game.

Gardner had the chance to tie the score with 23 seconds remaining following a missed free throw by Lottich, but he couldn't get the shot to drop.

"It feels great to come in here and get a win," Lottich said. "We played really well as a team today."

The story of the game was Arizona's inability to rebound and shoot free throws.

The Wildcats finished 14-26 from the free throw line, including a span where they missed eight in a row.

Besides being able to capitalize from the line, the Arizona allowed Stanford to grab 16 offensive rebounds to go a long with 19 turnovers that ultimately gave the Cardinal an extra35 offensive possessions.

Arizona's two All-American candidates, Gardner and Walton carried UA on their shoulders as they finished with a combined 42 points 13 rebounds and eight assists.

"I don't think we were ready mentally," Gardner said. "We had a lot of turnovers and missed free throws. They beat us on the boards and that was the game. Our mental preparation and our A game wasn't ready. They came in wanting to win the game and that's what they did."

Arizona returns the court Saturday as they play host to California at 5 pm in the McKale center.

Game Notes

Stoudamire finished with only three points after coming off his career high 32 points against Kansas last weekend. Freshman Chris Rodgers played 11 minutes and Olson said that Rodgers is continuing to show that he deserves more playing time. Senior golfer Ricky Barnes was honored at halftime by UA athletic director Jim Livengood for his win at the 2002 U.S. Amateur Championship. Arizona State defeated California 75-70, which means that the winner of UA's game against California will be atop the Pac-10.