Stanford Men's Basketball is Feeling Absence of Former Duke Guard

Stanford and Wake Forest played a tight one in ACC play on Wednesday night, with the two evenly matched clubs going right down to the wire, but it was the Demon Deacons that pulled off the 79-73 win at Maples. Without former Duke Blue Devils guard Jaylen Blakes, Stanford has dropped back-to-back games.

The Cardinal had an opening with 33 seconds to go and trailing by four in the fourth, when Evan Stinson stole an inbounds pass. With a defender in front of him, he tried to sling the ball to an open teammate at the three point line, but instead threw the ball out of bounds, giving the ball right back to Wake Forest. While this wasn't what lost Stanford the game, it was a brief glimpse at what might have been.

The bigger effects were felt by Blakes not being on the court for a second straight game after suffering a head injury against Syracuse. He has been ruled out against both SMU and Wake Forest.

Blakes has been a consistent starter for the Cardinal this season, getting into 21 games so far this year while averaging over 32 minutes per contest, along with 14.6 points, 1.9 steals, 3.3 rebounds, and five assists. With senior Maxime Raynaud being the main focus for the Cardinal offense, Blakes has been a clear number two all season.

One of his best traits has been his ability to drive to the basket and draw contact. It was that skill that was missing for the Cardinal on Wednesday night. While Stanford was able to go to the line more often in this one, shooting 19-of-21 from the line, after just 10 attempts against SMU, they had just seven attempts, making them all, in the second half on Wednesday.

With Stanford needing to score and time winding down, Blakes' ability to go at the basket would have been valuable, getting his team a couple of points while also stopping the clock in the process.

By comparison, Wake Forest shot 25-of-33 from the free throw line, including 15-of-16 in the second half.

If Blakes had played in this one, there may have been a different outcome.

With the loss, Stanford drops to 15-8 on the year and 7-5 in the ACC. With the win, Wake Forest now holds a two-game lead over Stanford with a 17-6 overall record which includes a 9-3 clip in the conference. A win by the Cardinal would have had the teams right on top of one another in the standings.

This is also the type of win that could end up separating Wake Forest from the pack when it comes time to determine the NCAA tournament field, while leaving Stanford behind.

Maxime Raynaud collected yet another double-double, scoring 16 points and bringing in 10 boards, adding to his lead in the nation. Oziyah Sellers (10), Ryan Agarwal (12), and Chisom Okpara (14) also scored double digits.

One bright side of this game is that the two clubs had already matched up this season, meeting in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Demon Deacons took that one 80-67, so the Cardinal were able to keep this one a bit closer.

Stanford's next game will be on Saturday, February 8 at 4 p.m. against NC State at home and will air on ACC Network. NC State is 9-13 overall this season and just 2-9 in the conference, so this should present an opportunity for the Cardinal to pick up a win before heading out on the road to face Georgia Tech in a week.