Led by a 14 point effort from junior guard Anthony Goods and 13 points from sophomore center Robin Lopez, Stanford clobbered lowly Sacramento State 84-58 last night.

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Alex Oppenheimer

Freshman Josh Owens scored six in Stanford’s 84-58 victory over Sacramento State. The Card’s leading scorers were junior guard Anthony Goods and sophomore center Robin Lopez.

“This is a veteran team and we knew what to expect,” said coach Trent Johnson. “They know how to win, and for us to be 7-1 with one hiccup, so to speak, is impressive considering we’ve played seven or eight guys. We put these guys in different combinations, trying to get the first seven or eight guys in different situations.”

While it must have been an ideal game from Johnson’s perspective — everyone played well enough and the outcome was never in doubt — it was a listless one from fans’ for those same reasons. No one had a truly breakout game and the 20-point margin throughout the contest was too much to excite and too little to amuse.

“I think everyone knows that we need to clean some things up,” said senior forward Taj Finger, who scored nine points in ten first-half minutes with a four-inch, 30-pound advantage over many of his defenders. “Some guys got out of rhythm because we played some different groups.”

The Hornets (1-6) may be the worst team Stanford will play all year, and looked it early on in a half-full Maples Pavilion.

The Cardinal starters pushed Stanford to a 10-3 lead five minutes in, the second string extended the margin to 25-10 five minutes later and the 42-25 halftime score signaled that the rout was on. Nine team blocks and thunderous dunks from Lopez, freshman forward Josh Owens and senior forward Fred Washington punctuated periods of quiet in Maples.

The Card claimed a 40-31 edge on the boards and held the Hornets to 37 percent (22-of-60) shooting — including an atrocious 28 percent (9-of-32) in the first half — when the contest could still rightfully be described as one.

Goods’ move to his natural position of shooting guard (he spelled junior Mitch Johnson at point in earlier games) may have helped, allowing him to focus on defense; he held Leath to just four first-half points on 1-of-7 shooting. Goods is shooting 45 percent this season, a major improvement from the 37 percent figure of his first two years.

Next up on Stanford’s schedule is a Sunday visit to Colorado (4-2), the team’s last game of the fall quarter. Then, after a two-week respite from games, sophomore forward Brook Lopez is expected to return from academic ineligibility in time for the Dec. 19 game against Santa Clara (4-1). After that, the caliber of the Cardinal’s opponents will jump light years as the team moves into conference play in the superior Pac-10.

“From here moving forward, our honeymoon is over,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s certainly right, which is why it is likely that Brook Lopez may not exactly have to “play his way back into the rotation.” Experts are claiming this could be the strongest Pac-10 ever, though early returns have been mediocre at best.

But whatever Stanford and the league’s ultimate fate, the honeymoon’s sure been nice while it lasted. With a 7-1 record going into Sunday’s game at Colorado, the Cardinal just hopes it can drag it out five more days.