Stanford’s freshman phenom Ebuka Okroie leads 95-90 win over No. 14 North Carolina

By Josh Dubow
The Associated Press

STANFORD — Freshman Ebuka Okorie had a freshman school-record 36 points and nine assists and Stanford rallied from 12 points down in the second half to beat No. 14 North Carolina 95-90 on Wednesday night.

Okorie outdueled Tar Heels freshman star Caleb Wilson and helped the Cardinal (14-4, 3-2 ACC) knock off the Tar Heels (14-3, 2-2) for the second straight season as conference opponents. North Carolina had won all 13 meetings between the schools before coach Kyle Smith took over last season in Stanford’s first year in the ACC.

Jeremy Dent-Smith hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:04 to play for his sixth long ball of the night to make it 88-87. After Wilson turned it over at the other end, Ryan Agarwal hit another 3 to put the Cardinal up by four points with 32 seconds to play.

The Cardinal held on from there for their second win over a ranked opponent this month after beating No. 16 Louisville at home on Jan. 2. That matches the most wins against ranked wins in a season for Stanford since the Cardinal had five in 2013-14 in the last season when they made the NCAA Tournament.

Dent-Smith and Agarwal each finished with 20 points as Stanford won despite playing without second-leading scorer Chisom Okpara, who is out with a lower-body injury.

Wilson and Henri Veesaar each scored 26 points for North Carolina.

North Carolina broke out to a 12-point lead early in the first half behind Veesaar, but Okorie got Stanford back into it with 17 points and five assists as the Cardinal cut it to 47-45 at the break.

The Tar Heels scored the first eight points of the second half and built the lead back to 12 before Stanford rallied.

Up next

North Carolina: Visits Cal on Saturday.

Stanford: Hosts Duke on Saturday.