Stanford turns back Northwestern

STANFORD, Calif. - Anthony Goods scored 18 of his 20 points in the first half, Mitch Johnson matched his career high with 16 points and hit a key 3-pointer in the final minute, and undefeated Stanford held off a late Northwestern rally for a 65-59 victory Saturday night.

Stanford (7-0) made 8 of its first 11 3-point tries and shot 9-for-18 from long range overall, including 4 each by Goods and Johnson in the Cardinal's toughest test yet on the nonconference schedule.

Kevin Coble had 15 points and 6 rebounds for Northwestern (7-2), which had won four straight and was looking for its best nine-game start in 15 years since the program went 9-0 out of the gates in 1993-94. Northwestern had its 12-game winning streak in the month of December snapped, a streak dating to the 2005-06 season. Stanford improved to 5-0 on its home floor in Maples Pavilion under first-year coach Johnny Dawkins and is off to its best start since winning 26 straight to begin the 2003-04 campaign.

The Wildcats started the second half with an 8-2 spurt before Goods hit a long jumper from the left side. Coble hit back-to-back 3s to get his team back to 55-50 with 4:44 to play and Craig Moore's 3 at 2:49 got the Wildcats within 59-57.

Luka Mirkovic hit the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw opportunity with 1:42 to play but missed the second that would have tied the game, and Johnson converted 1 free throw on the other end. Stanford got the ball back and Johnson hit a 3 with 41 seconds left. He also had 2 of Stanford's season-high 11 steals.

Jeff Ryan, whose father Jeff played for Stanford from 1977-81, had 8 points for Northwestern. The Wildcats committed 10 of their 19 turnovers - with Stanford getting 6 steals - in the opening 13 minutes but also made 8 of their first 13 shots to stay close and crashed the boards hard to minimize the Cardinal's second-chance opportunities.