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ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Casey Jacobsen and Stanford answered some questions about their toughness. Jacobsen finished with 17 points as the eighth-seeded Cardinal gave No. 9 Western Kentucky a dose of its own medicine with an 84-68 victory in a physical first-round matchup in the South Region. Curtis Borchardt added 19 points and 12 rebounds for Stanford, which will face top-seeded Kansas on Saturday. Western Kentucky (28-4), which had an 18-game winning streak snapped, tried to contain Jacobsen by having guard Mike Wells physically body up to him. But Jacobsen was equal to the task as Stanford won its eighth straight first-round contest. "You've got to understand that the calls in the NCAA are the calls they have to make," Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. "The hand-checking, push-offs, inside there's a lot of contact. You can't give in to that." A layup by Julius Barnes gave the Cardinal a 14-6 lead after Hilltoppers center Chris Marcus picked up a pair of early fouls. Jacobsen drilled a 3-pointer for a 32-19 lead and the Cardinal held a 36-22 halftime advantage. Freshman Patrick Sparks led all scorers with 20 points for Western Kentucky, which lost in the second round for the second year in a row. The Hilltoppers were outrebounded, 44-34. "I was disappointed," Hilltoppers coach Dennis Felton said. "For the second straight year, we allowed the other team to be more physical than us. We repeated what we did last season -- we let the other team manhandle us." Western Kentucky made several runs in the second half and got within 44-43 on a 3-pointer by David Boyden with 11:50 remaining. Julius Barnes and freshman Josh Childress each made 3-pointers in a 10-1 run that gave the Cardinal a 54-44 cushion. The lead was at least eight points the rest of the way. "You've just got to come out and play," Montgomery said. "We knew, coming in, that when the NCAA Tournament starts, the play inside is much more aggressive. We just had to adjust to it." Borchardt was the aggressor throughout in his head-to-head matchup with Marcus and made 7-of-11 shots. Marcus was limited to 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting. "It was tough," Borchardt said. "He is a 300-pound guy. They run their offense to give him the ball and I just tried to limit their touches." "I got into foul trouble early and found it hard to get in a rhythm," Marcus said. "I had a poor first half and wanted to come out in the second half and get things going. I just didn't have a good night." Freshman Chris Hernandez scored 11 points and Barnes added 10 for Stanford, which shot 47 percent (27-of-58). The Cardinal were the lowest-seeded team out of the Pac-10 Conference. Sparks made 6-of-13 shots but Western Kentucky's frequent fouling resulted in the Cardinal converting 25-of-35 from the line. The Hilltoppers were facing a ranked opponent for the first time since beating Kentucky in the season opener. "I don't think we were nervous," Sparks said. "They were more physical than we were. That's mainly how the game was won. We put them on the line a lot and they knocked down a lot of free throws." Western Kentucky shot just 35 percent (22-of-63), the 12th time that Stanford held an opponent under 40 percent shooting. The Cardinal have won 20 games for the eighth straight season. |
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