Last night, Stanford basketball participated in a pivotal championship game that can completely dictate the rest of their season. The Cardinal took on Saint Louis in the Acrisure Series Invitational championship, with both teams hoping to take a trophy home.
The game was about as insane as possible, with Stanford coming home with one of the craziest victories in Cardinal basketball history.
Despite an early 5-1 lead for Stanford, the first half was awful. Saint Louis took a 28-13 lead and clearly looked like a dominant opponent to the Cardinal. Even while Stanford fought late in the first half, they trailed badly, playing one of their worst halves of the year. The Billikens went up 47-36 at the break.
For the first 10 minutes of the second half, it looked like it would stay the same way. Saint Louis continued to dominate, and it looked like Stanford would lose by double digits. ThenJeremy Dent-Smith began to play hero.
Dent-Smith hit four threes late in the second half, completely changing the momentum of the contest. Stanford was able to dominate late, and keep it immensely close in the final few minutes.
Down four with under 15 seconds left, St. Louis had a 93.9% chance of winning this game. Even afetr Ryan Agarwal hit a circus shot from downtown to bring it within one with 11 seconds remaining, they still had an 83.4% chance of winning with a one point lead and the ball. Two Saint Louis free throws brought it back to a three point game.
Instead of allowing Stanford a chance to tie it, the Billikens elected to foul, putting Ebuka Okorie at the line for a one and one. He hit the first shot with ease, but intentionally missed the second. Then, one of the craziest plays in Stanford history took place.
AJ Rohosy fought for a rebound and found Benny Gealer in the corner. However, Gealer was fading, had a defender on him, and had zero points on the night at that point. But that didn’t stop him. He hit the three pointer, and Stanford won 78-77 in a thriller.
BENNY BOMB https://t.co/swgJF2len1
— Stanford on SI (@StanfordonSI) November 29, 2025
Chisom Okpara led the Cardinal in scoring, putting up 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Okorie’s 18 were huge as well, but it’s no surprise to see the freshman dominating again. Rohosy put up 11 and 9, as well as making the biggest play of the game, the rebound before the pass to Gealer. Finally, Dent-Smith had an incredible performance, getting 12 points and hitting four threes.
Saint Louis’s Trey Green, Robbie Avila, and Dion Brown combined for 39 altogether, but it was another depth performance that helped the Billikens play well.
Stanford now improves to 6-1, and hosts Portland on Monday with hopes to continue the two-game win streak.
