Stanford tops Cal 72-61

STANFORD - Chasson Randle isn’t as concerned with Stanford’s postseason possibilities as his coach and some of his teammates might be.

Getting the Cardinal back into a comfortable offensive flow is a much more pressing issue for the mercurial point guard.

Randle scored 19 points and had a career-high eight assists to help Stanford break out of its month-long funk and beat Cal 72-61 on Saturday to complete a season sweep of the Golden Bears.

“It was more so just about our standards and what we want to do for the rest of the year, NCAAs or not,” Randle said. “We just wanted to go out the right way. We wanted to come out as aggressive as possible.”

Anthony Brown had 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Michael Humphrey added 14 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double to help Stanford to its fifth win in the past six games between the two teams.

More critically, the win keeps the Cardinal (17-9, 8-6 Pac-12) in position for a key first-round bye in the conference tournament next month in Las Vegas. Stanford entered the game in fifth place, 1½ games out of third. The top four teams at the end of the season get a pass in the opening round of the tournament.

“Right now we need some wins, that’s the main thing,” Randle said.

Cal (16-11, 6-8) had hoped to get into that mix but lost its second straight despite David Kravish’s career-high 23 points.

The final score was very similar to the 69-59 win Stanford had over Cal on Jan. 14 in Berkeley. The Cardinal needed a late run to pull away in that game but didn’t need it this time around.

Stanford led the entire game and was up by 15 with nine minutes left to play before Cal made a late push.

Kravish scored on consecutive trips down the court and seldom-used Brandon Chauca made a 3-pointer to cut the Cardinal’s lead to 63-55 with 4:40 left.

“I thought we had good looks but in the second half, the rhythm, the flow ... we just didn’t get stops defensively,” Cal coach Cuonzo Martin said. “We had breakdowns, missed boxouts. I don’t think we defended well.”

Randle, who shot just 5 of 16 from the floor, made two free throws to stem Cal’s surge, then fed Stefan Nastic down low for an easy layup that made it 67-55. Randle later sank two more free throws and finished 8 for 8 from the stripe.

While the Cardinal continued their stranglehold over the Bears, the win is just Stanford’s second in six games - hardly the type of late-season momentum that will attract the attention of the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

Cal kept things close until Brown helped Stanford pull away late in the first half.

Brown, who made a pair of key 3-pointers when the Cardinal beat the Bears in January, had seven points as part of a 15-6 run.