STANFORD – Stanford overcame a spirited comeback by Cal to complete a sweep in the rivals’ first season as ACC opponents, beating the Bears 66-61 Saturday night at Maples Pavilion.
The win continued a surprising run by the Cardinal (17-10, 9-7 ACC), who was picked to finish 17th in the 18-team conference but is now in seventh place — two games clear of eighth. Stanford has clinched its first winning record since 2020-21 in its first season under coach Kyle Smith.
Meanwhile, Cal (12-15, 5-11) has lost six of seven and is in danger of missing the ACC tournament. The Bears are tied with Syracuse for 14th, one game ahead of both N.C. State and Boston College. Only 15 teams in the 18-team league qualify for the conference tournament in Charlotte.
Stanford won both regular-season games against Cal for the first time in four years and has now won eight of the last 12 games in the series.
“Getting a sweep over your rivals is the best feeling in the world,” said senior Maxine Raynaud, who has four straight 20-point games against the Bears.
Though Raynaud shot just 5-of-16, he scored the winning points on a pair of free throws with 32 seconds left that broke a 61-61 tie. The conference leader in points (19.9) and rebounds (11.3) per game added eight rebounds and three blocks.
The Paris native had 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting and five blocks in Stanford’s 89-81 win in Berkeley on Dec. 7.
“He absolutely killed us at our place,” Cal coach Mark Madsen said. “He’s had a lot of good games against a lot of teams in the conference. And so we made a few tweaks and adjustments defensively that just changed the rhythm. It’s a compliment to him that every team that plays Stanford has to really look at him first.”
The Cardinal had finished the last three seasons 1-6, 3-5 and 2-7, and this season was threatening to go in a similar direction. Stanford had lost four of five entering Saturday, but the Cardinal hopes that the rivalry win will signal a change.
“This is a bounceback game,” sophomore Ryan Agarwal said. “We’re going to try and carry that momentum to this last stretch of the season and into postseason basketball.”
It almost didn’t happen. In the first matchup, Cal cut a 20-point deficit with six minutes left to a 6-point margin with 1:21 to play. On Saturday, the Bears trailed by 16 with 9:29 remaining and then scored 14 straight points.
Stanford struggled with Cal’s press and couldn’t adjust to a tightly officiated game that featured 56 free throws. Point guards Jaylen Blakes and Benny Gaeler both fouled out with 2:28 still to play.
Playing in his first game at Maples since transferring from Stanford, Cal sophomore Andrej Stojakovic converted a three-point play with 42 seconds left to tie the game for the Bears. But Raynaud gave Stanford the lead on the next possession, and after Stojakovic missed a contested shot, Raynaud hit another free throw to make it 64-61.
Freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson missed a 3 with four seconds left for Cal, and Oziyah Sellers got the rebound and made two more free throws to provide the final margin. Wilkinson had 19 points, just missing his fourth straight 20-point game, and Stojakovic finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Though it wasn’t quite a sellout, it was the biggest crowd of the season for Stanford, who didn’t host a marquee non-conference opponent and missed having Duke or North Carolina come to Maples in its inaugural ACC campaign.
The Cardinal are now 14-2 at home with two games left at Maples, Wednesday against Boston College and Saturday against SMU.
Cal fell to 2-10 away from Haas Pavilion, where it will host SMU on Wednesday and Boston College on Saturday.
NOTE: Mike Montgomery, who coached Madsen at Stanford, was in attendance and was honored during the game. Since the Stanford-Cal football rivalry has The Axe, Smith has suggested the basketball teams play for the Monty Cup to celebrate the coach who won the most games in Stanford history and also led Cal to its only conference title since 1960.