Bellevue's Aaron Bright Has Career Night as Stanford Stays Alive in NIT

PALO ALTO, CA- has always been a great floor general, but he's starting to find his shot at the right time of the season.

The Bellevue grad scored a career-high 29 points to lead Stanford into the NIT quarterfinals via a 92-88 overtime win over Illinois State on Monday. A victory over Nevada at home, 6 p.m., Wednesday, will give the Cardinal a trip to New York's Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals.

Without Bright and fellow guard Chasson Randle, however, Stanford wouldn't even have had the chance.

"That was one of the craziest games I've played in," Bright said after the win Monday. "It was obviously a lot of fun."

The shifty guard, known more for driving and dishing, found his outside touch. He shot 11-for-13 for the night, including 6-for-7 from the 3-point line.

"The beginning of the game Jarrett (Mann) got me going a little bit, he drove and I think he got me two 3's, two really good looks right off the bat," Bright said. "I mean, I didn't really have to work very hard for my shots, and that got my offensive game going.

"I think when I shot the last three at the end of the half, it just felt like the basket was the size of the ocean," he added.

As he's done all season, Bright also led Stanford with six assists and committed only a pair of turnovers in a team-high 35 minutes.

Those numbers left Coach Johnny Dawkins raving about his Pacific Northwest point guard after the game.

"I have not seen many players in the country play any better than Aaron played tonight. I thought he made a lot of winning plays, not even his shots," the Cardinal coach said. "He made a lot of shots, of course, but I thought his decision-making was good. He made some timely passes to guys who were open, I can remember Anthony Brown having a great look. I mean, Aaron created that by sucking the defense in."

"I thought he gave Chasson a great look at the buzzer for us before overtime, got him a good look, and all that happened through his ability to create off the dribble and make plays. I was just really proud of him."