Chance Too Good for Knight to Pass Up

California had hoped to make up for the loss of Pacific 10 scoring leader Ed Gray by stepping up its defense, but Stanford point guard Brevin Knight cut right through that plan.

Knight had a school-record 13 assists Saturday as No. 25-ranked Stanford defeated Cal, 73-63, and finished unbeaten in 10 games at Maples Pavilion. It was also the 200th victory for Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery.

Gray, averaging 24.8 points, suffered a broken right foot near the end of a school-record 48-point performance in the Golden Bears’ previous game, an 89-87 loss at Washington State on Feb. 22. He had 27 points in Cal’s 70-64 victory over Stanford at Berkeley on Jan. 29.

Cal, 19-8 overall and 10-6 in the Pacific 10, tried to compensate by throwing an array of defenses at Stanford (18-7, 10-6), but Knight constantly thwarted that strategy.

When Cal packed its zone defense to keep Knight from driving to the basket, he passed off to Arthur Lee, David Moseley and Kris Weems on the perimeter. Those three players combined to make nine of 18 three-point shots and score 42 points.

When the Golden Bears tried to extended their defense, Knight dribbled through them and often found forwards Peter Sauer and Mike Madsen open for layups. Those two players combined for 18 points.

“Brevin distributed the ball as well as I’ve ever seen him,” said Montgomery.

Knight said it was clear that Cal missed Gray.

“He’s the kind of player you just give the ball to and you say, ‘Go play and score,’ ” Knight said. “Cal doesn’t have another player like Gray who can create his own offense.”

Tony Gonzalez, a standout tight end for Cal in football but mostly a reserve forward in basketball, was moved into the starting lineup and took a team-high 16 shots, missing 11.

“I’m not really used to this type of [shooting] role,” Gonzalez said. “I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not Eddie Gray. But somebody had to step up.”

Stanford and Cal, both in contention for NCAA tournament berths, close out the regular season with home games next week against the Arizona schools.

Washington State 74, Arizona State 70--Guard Isaac Fontaine’s fifth three-point basket with 1:06 left put the Cougars (13-15, 5-11) ahead for good at Tempe, Ariz.

Fontaine had 21 points and forward Carlos Daniel had 20 as Washington State ended a conference road losing streak at nine.

Guard Jeremy Veal had 26 points but missed two three-point shots in the final seconds for Arizona, which has lost nine consecutive games.

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Pac-10 Race

Conference

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Team W L UCLA 13 3 USC 11 5 Arizona 10 5 Stanford 10 6 California 10 6 Washington 9 6 Oregon 7 10 Washington State 5 11 Oregon State 3 14 Arizona State 2 14

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Overall

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Team W L UCLA 19 7 USC 16 9 Arizona 18 7 Stanford 18 7 California 19 8 Washington 16 8 Oregon 16 10 Washington State 13 15 Oregon State 7 19 Arizona State 10 18

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