Okorie Scores 29, Males’s Basketball Downs Montana, 91-68 – Stanford Cardinal

STANFORD, Calif. – Hosting its second consecutive Big Sky opponent during the opening weekend of the college basketball season, Stanford earned a 91-68 victory over visiting Montana on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinal improves to 2-0 on the season with the result.

Freshman Ebuka Okorie scored a career-high 29 points to go with four rebounds and four steals, finishing 11-for-16 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointers. Okorie is the first Stanford freshman with back-to-back 20-point games since Tyrell Terry from Jan. 11-15, 2020 and, he is the first Stanford player with back-to-back 20-point games to open the season since KZ Okpala in 2018. Okorie is one of just four freshmen nationally with multiple 20-point games this season.

Benny Gealer scored 13 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, while Aidan Cammann and AJ Rohosy scored 12 points each – a career-high for Cammann and a Stanford-high for Rohosy, who also added a game-high eight rebounds. Chisom Okpara scored eight points and Kristers Skrinda finished with seven.

Stanford forced 20 turnovers and recorded 14 steals – it’s most since having 14 against North Carolina on Dec. 1, 2020. The back-to-back games forcing 20 turnovers represent the first time Stanford has accomplished the feat since Feb. 18-20, 2021, at Washington and Washington State.

The Cardinal opened the game on a 9-0 run before the first Montana (2-1) basket, and it led from start to finish. Montana pulled within one with 9:14 to play, 15-14, but the Cardinal responded with a 16-6 run to push its advantage to double-digits. Cameron Grant tipped home a missed shot at the buzzer to give Stanford a 10-point lead at the half, 35-25.

Montana cut the deficit to seven points over the first four minutes of the second half, but Stanford quickly rebuilt an 18-point lead five minutes later, 63-45, led by 13 combined points from Okorie and Okpara. Stanford led by as many as 27 points in the second frame and ended up with a 23-point victory.

Stanford returns to the court on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Maples Pavilion against Montana State. The action tips off at 7 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.