Whatever happens between Stanford and Saint Louis in the championship of the Acrisure Invitational on Friday afternoon in Palm Desert, Calif., freshman point guard Ebuka Okorie likely will make his presence known.
Okorie did so again for Stanford (5-1) on Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the two-day event, scoring 25 points to lead the Cardinal to a 72-68 win against Minnesota.
“He’s an 18-year-old freshman that’s handled a lot of attention and done a good job with it,” Stanford coach Kyle Smith said. “He’s going to get in those fights. They’re coming, so he’ll learn.”
It was a welcome bounce-back game after Okorie was a bit overmatched in a 77-69 loss to visiting Seattle last Thursday.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Okorie went up against Seattle senior point guard Maleek Arington and scored 17 points. However, he was held to 5-for-15 shooting — and 0-for-5 from 3-point range.
“Some of it was fatigue-related,” Smith said. “I think the fatigue was more just going against a grown man.”
Okorie was a bit sharper against Minnesota, shooting 9-for-21 overall and 2-for-7 from 3-point distance.
Smith is looking for more support for his freshman star. One player he hopes to get into the rotation is 6-foot-10 freshman forward Oskar Giltay.
He played a season-high 10 minutes against Seattle but was limited to two versus Minnesota.
“He’ll have his time,” Smith said. “He’s going to get better and help us.”
In a matchup of unbeaten mid-major teams, Saint Louis (6-0) beat Santa Clara 71-70 on Thursday afternoon.
Kellen Thames made a layup with eight seconds left and Brenton Knapper missed one on the other end with two seconds remaining.
Trey Green, a transfer from Xavier, scored 21 points against Santa Clara, shooting 6-for-13 from 3-point distance. Green could see a lot of time matched up against Okorie.
