TUCSON, Arizona — Spencer Jones scored all 18 of his points in the second half for Stanford and played a key role in neutralizing Pac-12 leading scorer Azuolas Tubelis, as the Cardinal stunned No. 4 Arizona 88-79 on Saturday night.
Stanford (11-14, 5-9 Pac-12) beat a ranked team for the first time this year and a top-five team for the second time in two seasons. Arizona (22-4, 11-4), hoping to stay a half-game behind UCLA for the conference lead, had a seven-game win snapped.
Courtney Ramey scored a season- and game-high 26 points for Arizona, which could not overcome Tubelis’ worst game of the season. The junior forward, who had 40 points against Oregon on Feb. 2 and had averaged a near double-double this season (20.9 points, 9.7 rebounds) to lead the conference in both categories, was held to four points.
Tubelis did not have a rebound and committed four fouls.
Stanford’s Michael O’Connell scored a team-high 22 points, helping the Cardinal outshoot the Wildcats 61% to 46% from the field. Brandon Angel added 14 points for Stanford, Maxime Reynaud had 13 points and Harrison Ingram contributed 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Pelle Larsson and Cedric Henderson Jr. scored 12 points apiece for the Wildcats.
Jones took command of a back-and-forth game a third of the way through the second half, scoring all 13 of Stanford’s points during a nearly seven-minute stretch that ended with a layup that gave the Cardinal a 67-66 lead with 7:35 remaining.
A 3-point play by Angel extended Stanford’s lead to 70-66 before a Ramey 3-pointer cut the lead to one.
But the Cardinal scored the next nine points, punctuating the run with a wide-open 3-pointer by O’Connell that extended their lead to 79-69 with 3:28 left.
