Freshman Ebuka Okorie leads Stanford over Portland State 89-79 in season opener

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STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Ebuka Okorie scored 26 points in his collegiate debut to lead Stanford to an 89-79 victory over Portland State on Tuesday night in the season opener for both teams.

Okorie, a 6-foot-2 freshman guard from Nasua, New Hampshire, made all six of his free-throw attempts, shot 9 of 17 from the floor with a pair of 3-pointers and grabbed seven rebounds.

Senior Chisom Okpara, a Harvard transfer in his second season with Stanford, added 21 points. Jeremy Dent-Smith chipped in with 14 points and Benny Gealer had 12.

Sebastian Tidor scored 22 points and Jaylin Henderson added 19 for Portland State.

Okorie scored 16 points in the first half to help the Cardinal build a 37-30 halftime advantage. Henderson paced Portland State with nine first-half points.

Tidor hit two 3-pointers and Alex Dupre and Henderson each made one during a 12-2 run to pull the Vikings within 46-42 with 15:28 remaining but they didn't get closer.

Coach Kyle Smith enters his second season with Stanford. The Cardinal had 21 wins last season in their first ACC campaign, the program’s most since 2014-15. The Cardinal also won a program-record-tying 17 games a year ago at Maples Pavilion.

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