The Stanford Cardinal will advance to the 2012 NIT Tournament Final after a 74-64 win over the UMass Minutemen on Tuesday night. The Minutemen had been one of the stories of the tournament so far, coming in a as a No. 5 seed to knock off the likes of Drexel and Seton Hall to advance the semifinals. Tuesday, they briefly took a 50-49 lead with 8:05 to play before Stanford pulled away.
The Cardinal went on an 18-6 run over the next six-plus minutes to ultimately make the score more lopsided than the game actually was. They won the rebounding battle 46-34 to make up for 17 turnovers. Neither team shot the ball particularly well, though Stanford was slightly sharper in making 36.9 percent of their attempts from the field compared to 33.8 percent for UMass.
Stanford had four players reach double-digit points, led by 18 for Anthony Brown. Josh Owens dominated around the rim, grabbing 11 rebounds to go with 15 points. Chaz Williams scored 19 to lead the Minutemen.
For more on the NIT Tournament, be sure to check out our NIT stream on SB Nation New York.