Pac-10: Big second half boosts No. 8 Stanford

STANFORD, Calif.—Brook Lopez pounded his chest and screamed in celebration with each clutch play he made, getting the crowd roaring while fueling himself and his teammates in the process.

Lopez might have played his final college game at Maples Pavilion, and what a way to go out: practically single-handedly keeping Stanford in the Pac-10 title hunt.

Lopez scored 19 of his 25 points after halftime, pulled down six rebounds and helped the eighth-ranked Cardinal maintain their hopes of winning the conference with a hard-fought 60-53 victory over No. 22 Washington State on Saturday.

Lopez, the 7-foot sophomore expected to enter the NBA draft and forego his final two seasons on The Farm, was 11-for-16 from the field and had four blocks. He dunked on a putback with 2:52 to play to give the Cardinal the lead for good and converted two free throws at 1:39.

WASHINGTON 87, CALIFORNIA 84: In Berkeley, Calif., Joe Wolfinger scored a career-high 17 points on a perfect shooting night and Washington snapped a six-game losing streak in the Bay Area with a 87-84 victory over California on Saturday.

Ryan Appleby scored 14 of his 16 points in the first half and Justin Dentmon and Quincy Pondexter added 12 apiece for the Huskies (16-14, 7-10 Pac-10), who hadn’t won at Cal or Stanford since beating the Bears 106-73 on March 3, 2005.

ARIZONA STATE 80, USC 66: In Tempe, Arizona State overcame a career-best 37-point performance by O.J. Mayo and took a big step toward an NCAA tournament bid with a 80-66 victory over USC on Saturday.

James Harden, like Mayo a freshman, had 24 points and Jeff Pendergraph 21 to lead the Sun Devils (18-10, 8-8 Pac-10), who haven't been to the tournament since 2003 and were 2-16 in the conference a year ago.

Arizona State dominated the game at the foul line, going 34-of-39 to 10-of-11 for the Trojans, (18-10, 9-7) who missed a chance to move ahead of Washington State into third in the Pac-10 standings.