Arizona drops both Bay Area games, has lost 5 of last 8

STANFORD, Calif. ö No. 2 Stanford (20-0, 11-0 Pacific 10 Conference) entered its showdown with No. 12 Arizona (14-6, 6-5) riding a 19-game win streak, spanning nearly three months of the college basketball season.

It had been nearly two decades since a Lute Olson-led Wildcat team had lost five of eight games, a feat the hall-of fame head coach was hoping to avoid Saturday at Stanford.

Neither the Wildcats nor the Cardinal had won a home game against the other squad in four seasons, something Stanford head coach Mike Montogmery hoped would come to an end on national television.

When push came to shove, all that mattered were three-tenths of a second ö the time left on the game clock when Stanford forward Nick Robinson let go his game-winning 3-pointer, pulling the Cardinal to a 80-77 victory, their school-record 20th straight to open the season.

Arizona came up empty on its Bay Area trip, losing 87-83 Thursday to California.

"When I let it go, it felt good," said Robinson, whose steal from Arizona junior guard Salim Stoudamire gave him just over two seconds to cross midcourt and fire the game-winning bucket.

Arizona trailed by as many as 12 in the second half but battled back to take a four-point lead into the game's final minute via a 19-6 run.

Robinson and Cardinal shooting guard Matt Lottich closed in on Salim Stoudamire with less than 10 seconds to go, forcing the ball loose to set up the winning basket.

"We wanted to get the last shot inside of four seconds, like we had worked on," Olson said. "We were going to put the ball in Stoudamire's hands with a pick, even if it was a zone situation."

"I'm not sure if he popped it out or if I did but the ball was loose and I grabbed it," Robinson said. "I just looked at the clock."

Robinson was bombarded by both teammates and fans, most of whom were from Stanford's "Sixth Man Club" student section who had been camped outside Maples Pavillion for up to four days this week. Stanford alum Tiger Woods was also among the 7,391 in attendance.

Stanford opened the game on a 12-4 run, keeping Arizona without a field goal for the first four and a half minutes.

Three Chris Hernandez free throws game Stanford a 44-32 lead with three seconds to go in the first half before Stoudamire drained a buzzer-beater of his own to cut the deficit to nine at halftime.

Arizona opened the second half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to two, but Stanford rebuilt its lead to 12 with 13:20 remaining before Arizona mounted its final comeback in the game's waning minutes.

"We just really messed it up," Olson said. "We had a four-point lead."

Stoudamire led the way for Arizona, scoring 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting from the floor. Arizona junior center Channing Frye finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, spending much of the day trying to contain Stanford center Rob Little, who scored 16 and grabbed six boards.

Frye, whose 3-pointer with 4:43 to play gave Arizona its first lead of the game, said the time for excuses is over for the Wildcats, whose skid down the rankings will take another hit this week after the team's third loss in its last four games and fifth in its last eight.

"Everybody said it was a couple mistakes here and there, but we really could have beaten this team," Frye said.

Stanford's Josh Childress put up 18 points and 10 rebounds while Chris Hernandez scored 20 and dished out five assists.

Childress said a team manager asked him Friday what the craziest game he'd ever been a part of was.

"I had no answer for him, but now I do," Childress said

Montgomery said that as big as the win was, he isn't surprised by how well his team is playing.

"It was a great game. It was on television; a lot of people got a chance to see it," he said. "All of that is good stuff, but for us, it's just another step in what is turning out to be a pretty dog-gone good season."

Stanford is just one of two unbeaten teams left. No. 3 St. Joseph's also won its 20th straight game Saturday, an 89-63 win over LaSalle.

Olson said in order to rebound against Southern California and UCLA next week at home, the Wildcats need to come out with more energy.

"We had a chance to win both (Bay Area games) and we didn't," he said. "You just have to play every possession like it's your last one, and we did not do that early and it caught up with us."