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Saturday, Jan. 27 6:00pm ET
Stanford off to Final Four-esque 19-0 start

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PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) -- With leading scorer Casey Jacobsen shut down for much of the night, No. 1 Stanford turned to twin towers Jason and Jarron Collins for scoring punch.

Each of the Collins twins scored 18 points as Stanford shook off a surprisingly tough Washington State team 72-61 to set a school record with 19 consecutive victories to open the season.

"There is no pressure on any one individual on this team," said Jacobsen, who entered the game averaging nearly 18 points, but settled for 11. "That's why I love playing for Stanford."

Washington State concentrated on shutting down Stanford's outside shooting, but had no answer for the Collins twins, who scored their points in bunches to keep the Cardinal in the lead nearly the entire game.

Jarron Collins hit 8 of 10 shots, while Jason made 8 of 12, and added 12 rebounds as Stanford dominated the boards 40-20.

"My brother, throughout the game, was dominant inside," Jarron Collins said.

That wasn't the initial game plan, but "our team is so talented, so deep, it's just whoever is feeling it on a given night," Jarron said.

The Cardinal (19-0, 7-0 Pacific 10) remained the only unbeaten Division I team in the nation. Stanford opened the 1997-98 season with 18 straight victories and advanced to the Final Four.

Washington State (7-10, 1-7) lost its fourth straight game and seventh in the past eight. The Cougars have lost 13 consecutive home games against a top-ranked team.

Mike Bush scored 23 points and kept Washington State in contention. The Cougars kept Stanford 13 points under its season average.

"This is one of our best games of the season," Bush said. "They're a great basketball team and we played them tough."

The biggest WSU crowd of the season turned out to watch Stanford, which has been averaging a winning margin of 24 points, and was rewarded by seeing the Cardinal struggle to their closest win in six games.

"They may have come to see Stanford, but they were cheering for us," Bush said.

Stanford coach Mike Montgomery conceded Washington State limited his guards, but pointed out that his post players were 19-for-25 on inside shooting.

"We haven't been challenged for a couple of games," Montgomery said. "We needed this a little bit."

Montgomery and his players downplayed setting a school record for consecutive wins. However, the significance of an undefeated season is dawning on them.

"The likelihood of us going undefeated all season is very remote," Jarron Collins said. "But our philosophy is it's (loss) not going to be the next game."

Washington State trailed just 34-28 at halftime, but the Collins brothers scored 17 of Stanford's first 20 points in the second half as the Cardinal took a 54-41 lead with 10:22 left.

Washington State had no answer for the towering twins, who made most of their points inside.

The teams traded baskets in the closing minutes, but WSU was unable to make up any ground.

Washington State opened aggressively and trailed just 20-18 with 8:15 left in the first half, despite shooting just 39 percent in the half. But the Collins brothers combined for 12 of Stanford's next 14 points as the Cardinal built a 34-23 lead.

Washington State's Bush was fouled on a spectacular reverse lay-up and sank the free throw to cut WSU's deficit to six points at halftime. Stanford was hurt by 1-for-8 shooting from 3-point range in the first half.





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