Two roads crossed for Arizona State and Stanford — and led in completely opposite directions after their Jan. 19 contest, a 67-52 Cardinal victory. That early Pac-10 battle sparked Stanford’s run to the top-10, and precipitated the Sun Devils’ fall back to the Arizona State teams of years past.

Enlarge
#gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8549
Jeff Keacher

Sophomore Brook Lopez looks to lead Stanford to its eighth straight victory tonight vs. Arizona State. He scored 19 points and grabbed 16 rebounds last time out against the Sun Devils.

Arizona State, victors of ten in a row, 14-2 and nationally ranked at the time, looked the part early on their Jan. 19 visit to Maples, jumping to a 30-20 halftime lead with smothering defense.

But sophomore center Brook Lopez singlehandedly erased that deficit in the second half, scoring 10 straight points as Arizona State (15-7, 5-5 Pac-10) searched in vain for an answer. Lopez finished with 19 points and 16 rebounds for the No. 7 Cardinal (20-3, 9-2 Pac-10), who, buoyed by the victory, has won seven straight to crack the top-10 and the top of the Pac-10 standings (the team is currently tied with UCLA) for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

This weekend, Stanford looks to keep that momentum in its corner while it runs its win streak to nine with visits to Arizona State at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Arizona Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

The Sun Devils have been reeling ever since Brook Lopez’s dominating performance against them back in January; Lopez took a certain pride in ASU’s undoing.

“We felt they came in really cocky for all the young guys they got on their team and their 10-game win streak,” he said after the win.

Sure enough, cockiness is far more fleeting than genuine confidence, and Arizona State has displayed neither since its loss to the Cardinal. They had dropped five in a row before last weekend’s 59-54 win over Arizona, falling from a first-place tie to a fifth-place tie in the league. Once surefire bets for the NCAA Tournament, the Devils may be more likely to achieve a mark of a different sort — their fifth straight losing Pac-10 season.

If Stanford can stall speedy freshmen guards James Harden (18 points, 5 rebounds per game) and Ty Abbott (10 points, 5 rebounds) as well as junior forward Jeff Pendergraph (14 points, seven rebounds), they have to feel good about their chances tonight. The Devils’ three leading scorers combined for 35 in the teams’ first battle, while their other two starters both went scoreless.

Brook Lopez leads the Cardinal with 18 points and 8 rebounds per game, though he was relatively quiet against the Oregon schools last weekend. In Stanford’s last game, an ugly 71-56 victory over woeful Oregon State (6-17, 0-11), a trapping defense akin to Louisville’s in last year’s NCAA Tournament stymied Lopez into 7 turnovers, no assists and a public shouting match with his brother Robin.

However, Brook has carried the team on his back all season — his struggles against Oregon State notwithstanding. Thus, the awakening of his teammates is what has spurred Stanford’s recent run.

Without a doubt, the Punxsutawney Phil of the team is junior forward Lawrence Hill. Though averaging just 10 points and 6 rebounds after an All Pac-10 sophomore campaign, Hill has broken out of a winter slump and stepped into the sunlight as of late. After pouring in a game-high 14 against Oregon State, he has scored at least 13 points in his last three games. He had managed just one double-figure game during the six weeks prior.

But it hasn’t just been Hill filling a critical role during the team’s 20-win season. Junior guard Mitch Johnson (7 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists) and senior forward Taj Finger (6 points, 5 rebounds) are the team’s most improved players, senior forward Fred Washington (5 points, 5 rebounds) the team’s best on-ball defender and sophomore center Robin Lopez (9 points, 6 boards) the best defender in the post.

Meanwhile, junior guard Anthony Goods (11 points, 38 percent shooting) is the team’s highest scorer after Brook Lopez, but is scoring at about the same rate as last year. If he can elevate his game, Stanford looks likely to improve on its 71 points per game, just sixth in the Pac-10, and make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, where games often hinge on guard play.

On Saturday, Arizona will challenge the Cardinal with freshman guard Jerryd Bayless (20 points per game) and forwards Chase Budinger (17 points) and Jordan Hill (13 points). However, point guard Nic Wise (8 points) is out for six weeks with a torn meniscus, and the Wildcats have struggled without him, losing two straight.