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Hill helps Stanford cool off California

Jan 18, 2009 - 6:54 AM PALO ALTO, California (Ticker) -- Lawrence Hill and Stanford spoiled Mike Montgomery's return to Maples Pavilion.

Hill scored 25 points and Anthony Goods added 19 as Stanford used a late surge to snap 23rd-ranked California's nine-game winning streak with a 75-69 victory on Saturday.

Landry Fields chipped in 15 points for the Cardinal (12-3, 2-3 Pac-10), who spoiled the Bears' first game as a ranked team since the 2002-03 season.

The contest also marked the return of Montgomery, the current California coach, who guided Stanford to a 393-167 record over 18 years - which includes a Final Four appearance in 1998.

"Everybody was very gracious," Montgomery said. "They booed accordingly, like they should've, when we were introduced and all that kind of stuff. But relative to me, they were very gracious, as I should've expected."

The Cardinal took control of an extremely tight game with an 11-1 run to take a 65-56 advantage with 3:54 to play. Mitch Johnson scored six points during the spurt.

Stanford pushed the lead up to 10 before Theo Robertson helped California come within 71-67 on consecutive 3-pointers, but that would be as close as the Bears would get.

Jamal Boykin scored 22 points and Robertson added 17 for California (15-3, 4-1), which was off to its best start since the 1959-60 season when it finished 28-2 and was the national runner-up.

"These are great kids and we're trying to do the best that we can," Montgomery said. "We've got two road breakthroughs (at Washington State and at Washington last week), here was a chance to get a third. They're hard to get."

Both teams shot above 50 percent in the first half and neither side led by more than three points in the opening 20 minutes.

Stanford trailed by one point with less than one minute to play in the half before Fields and Kenny Brown each scored before the break to give the Cardinal a 35-32 lead.

The contest stayed close throughout the second half but, after Patrick Christopher put the Bears in front, 54-53, Johnson hit a pair of jumpers and Hill scored on a layup to give the Cardinal the largest lead of the game at 60-55 with 5:34 remaining.

Stanford, which snapped a two-game losing streak, shot 56 percent (30-of-54) from the floor, including 6-of-12 from the arc.