Stanford completed its sweep of the Travelers Basketball Classic with a 67-48 win over UC-Santa Barbara Sunday afternoon, demonstrating an ability to handle pressure and put teams away that left head coach Trent Johnson pleased.

“It was a good weekend for Stanford,” Johnson said. “We brought some energy three nights in a row and we played extremely hard. That’s important for us.”

Junior guard Anthony Goods scored 20 of his game high 23 points in the first half, during which he scored 10 points in a row and the No. 23 Cardinal (3-0) took the lead for good.

“Back to normal,” said Goods, who had battled an upset stomach earlier in the weekend.

Once again, Stanford exploited its size and strength advantages inside, dominating the Gauchos 45-28 on the boards. Sophomore center Robin Lopez scored 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field, also adding three rebounds, two blocks and two steals.

Alex Harris finished with 18 points to lead UCSB (2-1), but was limited to six points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field in the second half as the Cardinal cranked up the defensive intensity.

“When we get into it, we’re a pretty good defensive team,” said senior Fred Washington, who matched up against Harris most of the game. “And we don’t even have Brook [Lopez, academically ineligible for fall quarter] back yet.”

The Gauchos hung tough with Stanford in the first half, trailing by 11 at intermission and starting the second stanza with a 6-0 spurt to close the gap to 35-30. But junior guard Mitch Johnson (seven points, six rebounds, five assists) hit a three-pointer and passed to a soaring Robin Lopez for a one-handed alley-oop on the next possession. The Cardinal went on an 11-0 run, opened a 16-point lead and never looked back.

Free throws were the only Achilles heel for Stanford, which made 24 of 39 attempts.

“I don’t know what to say,” said Washington, who shot 5-for-8 from the stripe. “I knock them down in practice. I’m just sucking in games.”

Asked to elaborate, coach Johnson agreed: “It just sucks.”

Overall, however, Johnson said he was happy with the way the team played over the weekend, showing a killer instinct against feisty yet ultimately overmatched opposition, and avoiding the embarrassing early-season losses that befell national powers Kentucky and Southern California.

“It’s a good start for us,” Johnson said. “We’re three games in, and we’ve got a long way to go.”

Stanford 111, Harvard 56

When the Stanford coaching staff saw T-shirts hailing “The Jeremy Lin show” — in honor of the current Harvard guard and former Palo Alto High School star — among the Maples Pavilion crowd, they offered a new instruction for the team: don’t let the guy score.

The Cardinal did that, and a lot more, Friday night, routing Harvard 111-56 in its first of three contests in this weekend’s Travelers Basketball Classic. Stanford’s point total was its highest since 1990, and the 55-point margin of victory was the third-highest in school history.

Junior transfer Drew Shiller, making his regular season debut for Stanford, bounced back from a shaky outing in Monday’s exhibition against Concordia and led the Cardinal with 18 points, including 13 in the first half. Stanford opened the game with strong defensive pressure and took a commanding 63-28 lead at the intermission — the most points the team had scored in a half since 1999.

“The defensive intensity was really good at the beginning,” said senior forward Taj Finger, who added 15 points and seven rebounds along with his trademark defense and energy off the bench. “The first five minutes are the most important against a team who you should beat and everyone thinks you’re going to beat. You don’t want to give them any hope.”

Hope was fleeting for Harvard, which shot 36 percent from the field and 48 percent from the free-throw stripe. Evan Harris led the Crimson with 14 points.

Lin, who led Palo Alto to the Division-II state championship in 2006, went scoreless on six shots in 21 minutes before fouling out. He had a number of fans in attendance bearing green T-shirts with his name, but struggled on both ends with Stanford looking to make a statement to start its season.

Junior guard Anthony Goods, despite having to leave the game to vomit throughout both halves, torched Lin and the Crimson on the offensive end, scoring 17 points and making five out of six three point attempts. After the game, Goods blamed “some spicy Cajun chicken” from the pre-game meal for his stomach woes.

“He was still hitting fadeaways, though,” Finger said.

The Cardinal exploited its physical advantages inside, outrebounding Harvard 50-19 and shooting 60 percent from the field.

“Obviously we are a lot bigger and stronger than Harvard is at this time,” Stanford’s coach Johnson said. “But they got some good shots and kept competing.”

Stanford 97, Northwestern State 58

Stanford kept the momentum firmly in its corner Saturday night against Northwestern State, running away in a 97-58 blowout in a game that was a virtual mirror image of the Cardinal’s opening night rout of Harvard. Junior forward Lawrence Hill (7-of-11) and Shiller (4-of-6, 3-of-4 from long range) led all scorers with 15 apiece, Washington (5-of-7) and Mitch Johnson (4-of-6) chipped in 14 each and junior guard Kenny Brown added 10 as the Cardinal jumped out to a 33-11 lead eight minutes in and never looked back.

“These guys are playing to a level which I think is good for us,” coach Johnson said. “In the past, this has been a team that has played to the level of opponents.”

The 1.8-to-1.0 assist-to-turnover ratio would be great news on any night, but the best news on Saturday was lights-out shooting from the starters. The wings exploited their superior athleticism to drive into the paint, draw Northwestern State double and triple teams and then kick to wide-open teammates for open threes and lay-ins. The starting five finished a combined 21-of-34, with Mitch Johnson’s 14 points on six field goal attempts (and four free throws) most impressive of all.

“It was just stepping up and hitting open shots,” he said. “We did a good job of spreading the floor and making them help and recover. We were able to get into the gaps and see open guys.”

Stanford did cool off after its white-hot start, but finished shooting 54 percent (34-of-63) from the field and 40 percent (10-of-25) from three-point land.

On a lighter note, Northwestern State’s C.J. Clark (#11) and Logan McConathy (#5) both played in incorrect jerseys (#42 and #10, respectively), confusing the official scorers at Maples to no end. It was just that type of night though for the Demons, who blew a bevy of open looks to finish with just 38 percent overall accuracy (23-of-60) and an abysmal 24 percent (5-of-21) from beyond the arc. Forward Trey Gilder, one of the NCAA’s most prolific scorers last season, came on strong in the second half to lead the Demons with 14 points.

— Senior Staff Writer Daniel Novinson contributed to this report.