Stanford 74, Rhode Island 65

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[March 23, 2015]  Stanford 74, Rhode Island 65: Chasson Randle scored a career-high 35 points as the Cardinal knocked off the visiting Rams to advance to the NIT quarterfinals.

Randle, a 6-2 senior guard who came in averaging 18.9 points, shot 9-for-16 from the floor while the rest of his teammates shot 9-for-37. Anthony Brown added 16 points and Stefan Nastic finished with 11 rebounds for Stanford (21-13), which will play Vanderbilt on Tuesday.

E.C. Matthews had 23 points and seven rebounds to lead Rhode Island, but committed seven of his team’s 15 turnovers. Hassan Martin contributed 16 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots for Rhode Island (23-10), which took 21 free throws compared to 49 for Stanford.

Rhode Island never led in the game, despite cutting a four-point halftime deficit to one on three occasions early in the second half. Matthews had a chance to give the Rams their first lead but his turnover led to a 3-pointer on the other end by Randle for a 39-35 advantage with 15;13 left and Rhode Island never got closer than three the rest of the way.

Both teams struggled with their accuracy and were shooting near 20 percent the first 13 minutes. Stanford benefited from more trips to the free-throw line and two from Brown gave the Cardinal a 23-12 lead with 5:48 left in the first half. Rhode Island went down by as much as 13 before scoring the final nine points of the opening half to make it a four-point game at the break.

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GAME NOTEBOOK: This was the first meeting between the teams since their classic Elite Eight matchup 17 years ago to the day, a game won by Stanford, which is 4-0 all-time against Rhode Island. … Randle is 27 points away from passing Todd Lichti as Stanford’s all-time leading scorer (2,336). ... Stanford improved to 15-5 all-time at the NIT.

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