Recap: Stanford Men’s Basketball upsets No. 14 North Carolina at Maples
On Wednesday, Stanford men’s basketball upset No. 14 North Carolina on their home floor of Maples Pavilion by a final score of 95-90. Stanford freshman point guard Ebuka Okorie led the way for the Cardinal with 36 points and nine assists on 12-20 shooting from the field, 3-5 shooting from 3-point range, and 9-11 from the foul line while redshirt junior guard Ryan Agarwal and graduate student guard Jeremy Dent-Smith each had 20 points. North Carolina junior center Henri Veesaar (26 points & 6 rebounds) and freshman forward Caleb Wilson (26 points & 9 rebounds) were the top performer for the Tarheels. Stanford improves to 14-4 overall and 3-2 in the ACC while North Carolina falls to 14-3 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford Men’s Basketball Postgame Press Conference-North Carolina
BOX SCORE: North Carolina at Stanford-Thursday, January 15th
“Yeah, that was a really great environment,” Stanford head coach Kyle Smith said after the game. “It’s great to see Maples so loud, passionate, and really good for Stanford men’s basketball to have a brand like North Carolina, I know it’s our league, but they have quite the standard of excellence and they have really talented player, and it was fun for spectators. A lot of scoring. Neither team could really get a stop and we were able to just kind of hang in there. We got enough stops when we needed and we made some big shots and thanks to these two guys by my side [Okorie & Dent-Smith], they made a lot of those plays. So, great win for our program and just, we’ll look forward to enjoying this one while we can.”
Stanford was without forward Chisom Okpara despite him being listed as a game-time decision. Officially, he is listed as day-to-day, so it remains to be seen how things progress with him in the coming days. With him out, the starting lineup for the Cardinal consisted of point guard Ebuka Okorie, shooting guard Ryan Agarwal, small forward Donavin Young, point guard Benny Gealer, and power forward Oskar Giltay.
“You know, this team has a got a lot of heart, man,” Smith said of not having Okpara. “I’m telling you, these guys, I love Chiz. These guys love him. The guy loves to play and it kills him not to be out there. But he’s always, when he’s on the bench, man, he’s great. He’s really with these guys. He’s got a huge heart and we play for each other and we talk about, there’s gonna be thunderbolts in every season where, you know, a guy goes down and that guy has to step up and it was neat for these guys and for him and he was probably the most enthusiastic guy as we’re going down the tunnel and it’s sincere with him. He’s a big lover. Love that guy.”
North Carolina led Stanford 6-5 with 15:57 remaining in the first half. Ryan Agarwal had made a 3-pointer for the Cardinal while Oskar Giltay scored a nice bucket inside. Seth Trimble (4 points) and Caleb Wilson (2 points) were on the board for the Tarheels.
North Carolina led 20-13 with 10:59 left in the half. Wilson was up to six points and five rebounds for the Tarheels on 3-5 shooting from the field. North Carolina was shooting 9-16 from the field while Stanford was shooting 5-11. Dent-Smith was up to five points for Stanford after draining a three from up top. Okorie hit a long 2-pointer to get himself on the board.
North Carolina led 31-22 with 7:40 to go in the half. Veesaar was up to 10 points and three rebounds for the Tarheels while Okorie was getting things going for the Cardinal with nine points. North Carolina was 12-21 (57.1%) from the field while Stanford was 9-19 (47.4%). Stanford needed to get more shots to fall and force North Carolina into more difficult attempts.
North Carolina led 37-34 with 3:13 to go in the half. A 3-pointer by Gealer tied it up for Stanford before Veesaar hit a 3-pointer to give the Tarheels the lead again. Gealer got his first points of the night while Veesaar was up to 16 points. Stanford did a good job containing Wilson, who had only six points so far.
At halftime, North Carolina led Stanford 47-45. After being down by as much as 12 points, the Cardinal were back in the game. Ebuka Okorie was up to 17 points and five assists for the Cardinal after finding Aidan Cammann inside for the slam to beat the buzzer. Henri Veesaar led the Tarheels with 16 points. Caleb Wilson remained at six points.
North Carolina opened the second half on an 8-0 run to lead 55-45 with 17:33 to go. Wilson was now up to 14 points for the Tarheels, having scored all eight of their points in the second half. Stanford needed to find a way to slow him down as he was on a roll.
North Carolina led 63-51 with 14:59 to go. Veesaar was up to 19 points and five rebounds for the Tarheels while Wilson had 16 points and seven rebounds. North Carolina was outscoring Stanford 16-6 in the second half, executing a strong game plan.
North Carolina led 67-60 with 11:34 to go. The Cardinal hung around, largely due to Okorie, who was up to 27 points and six assists. Stanford had made five of their last six field goals and was starting to get cooking on offense.
North Carolina led 79-77 with 6:58 to go. Dent-Smith came alive for the Cardinal with 17 points on 5-5 shooting from 3-point range, providing just the help Okorie needed, who had 29 points.
North Carolina led 85-81 with 3:47 to go. Okorie was up to 33 points and eight assists for the Cardinal—a career high. He was clearly not afraid of the moment. Dent-Smith (17 points) and Agarwal (14 points) were also in double figures for the Cardinal. Veesaar (25 points & 6 rebounds) and Wilson (24 points & 9 rebounds) led the way for the Tarheels.
North Carolina led 87-84 with 2:12 to go. The game was going down to the wire. Stanford had possession. Okorie’s 33 points led the Cardinal. Wilson’s 26 points led the Tarheels after he made two free throws.
Stanford led 91-87 with 31.8 seconds to go. Back-to-back threes from Dent-Smith and Agarwal sent Maples Pavilion into a frenzy.
Stanford led 93-90 with 6.2 seconds to go. Stanford had possession. Okorie was up to 36 points and nine assists after making a pair of free throws. Stanford just needed to make one more set of foul shots to seal the win.
Stanford defeated North Carolina 95-90. The Cardinal pulled off an upset over the No. 14 team in the nation. Ebuka Okorie led the way for the Cardinal with 36 points and nine assists, while Jeremy Dent-Smith (20 points) and Ryan Agarwal (20 points) also had standout performances.
To touch quickly on North Carolina, this is a disappointing loss for them. They come cross country to face a Stanford team that was without their number two scorer and couldn’t get the job done. While Stanford is a quality team and losing to them in and of itself isn’t bad, you still want to win all the road games you can and they had their chances. It’ll be interesting to see how they respond on Saturday in Berkeley against a Cal team that is certainly going to be hungry after losing to No. 6 Duke.
“Defensively, we were late on rotations and kickouts from offensive rebounds,” North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis said. “Our issues were coming from a number of different directions. We’ll do a number of things differently defensively, You know, we weren’t doing any switching off the ball. We need to keep certain defenders on certain guys, We tried to get the ball out of (Ebuka) Okorie’s hands, and you know, his ability to be able to split and get around us is what they do well.”
“I just think we gotta make them miss,” Wilson added. “I mean, we, people are hitting shots. We just gotta make them miss. I mean, that’s all I can really say.”
As for Stanford, this is a huge win for them. North Carolina came in as a top 15 team in the nation. When you combine that with the brand that the Tarheels have, this is definitely the best win of the Kyle Smith era and the second win over a ranked opponent. The first one being earlier this season against Louisville. This is the kind of win that shows the program is on the right trajectory.
“It’s great, it’s what makes kind of what we all are here for, college basketball atmosphere and we’re selling these guys recruits, like we’re playing in the ACC,” Smith said. “We’re gonna play teams like this and it’s probably, I don’t know, you’d have to ask them, but it’s one of the main reasons, guys wanna match, see what they can do against the best and then, just so you know, maybe this will go viral, is that when I got in center court [after the win], I was trying to coach up the students on what we were chanting and I started, I went right to Revenge of the Nerd. Nerds. Nerds. Nerds. Nerds. Aidan [Cammann] jumped in. Naturally, it was real easy for Aidan to jump in there with me, so we got that going and it was fun. It’s just more fun to watch these guys. I’ve had my moments, but really neat to see these guys grow and have success.”
“It’s really cool, that’s why you come to Stanford, just play against all these high level teams,” Okorie said. “Yeah, it’s just like cool going up against all these high level teams and I just love competing and it was just a great environment with all the fans and everyone supporting us.”
Ebuka Okorie absolutely stole the show in this one. He was phenomenal. He got to the rim, made his free throws, and got others involved. It was truly a masterclass in how to be a point guard.
“Yeah, I feel like the defense was helping more than usual,” Okorie said of his ability to get nine assists. “And obviously credit to my teammates for moving to open windows and just giving me the opportunity to give them the ball on target and then have them shot ready and yeah, just credit to my teammates for getting open and being able to knock down shots.”
“I thought we had one of the best players in the gym tonight,” Smith said of Okorie. “And we put, we just disguise a lot of different ways to get him with the ball and try to get two on the ball with him and I think that’s the next step is to, like, they started blitzing, chasing a little bit, and he was willing to give it up and we moved in, we made some extra passes, and something we’ve been emphasizing is good to see and that could be contagious as well, too. So, I think we disguised a lot of those horns, a lot of different ways where this guy had the ball and there’s a screen or two behind it. And you gotta make shots to win games and you know, I’m really proud of our guys.”
On top of Okorie’s amazing night, Ryan Agarwal and Jeremy Dent-Smith were sensational as well. They did a fantastic job of makings shots from beyond the arc. Agarwal was 5-9 from 3-point range while Dent-Smith was 6-7. Scoring 20 points was a career-high for Agarwal and a Division I career-high for Dent-Smith.
“Yeah, I mean, it feels good,” Dent-Smith said. “I always hold myself to high expectations, so I feel like just being able to do whatever for my team. Apparently, you know, tonight that was hitting shots and I knew I can do that. So, just staying confident and then it’s always like a shooter’s game. So, you see one go through, you see two go through, then it’s kind of just rhythm and credit to Ebuka, he found me on a lot of those threes and just my teammates knowing that, you know, I got hot. So, confidence from them, from coaches every day, just telling me to, you know, keep working and it’s not all about offense. It’s about defense as well. So just going in with a different mindset than I would last year and just shift in growing this year as, you know, it was kind of just stepping into the moment and being ready.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against No. 6 Duke on Saturday, January 17th. Tipoff is set for 3:00 PM PT on ACC Network.
“We’ll enjoy this one,” Smith said when asked about facing Duke. “You know, we’ll get, we keep the same routine. There’s no, nothing magic. These guys can, in their head, know it’s coming. We’ll do game review, Coach Shaw put us through there. I can tell your right there we’re gonna see our free throw block outs that we missed. Those were big and could’ve cost us a game. And then we’ll probably walk through their stuff tomorrow and get some shots up and we’ll have our prep practice Friday and it’ll be, you know, again, tell to make some more memories and Maples, it should be a good crowd and it’s neat. We’ve had, this month has been good and we had a lot of special visitors today. We had Dr. Rice come out and see us and President Levin came out and some others and it’s good, so we’re excited about this opportunity.”
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