NEW YORK - With his Stanford teammates struggling and the lead slipping away, Anthony Brown shot the ball with no hesitation.
Brown scored 13 of his season-high 18 points in the second half to lead the Cardinal to a 74-64 victory over Massachusetts in an NIT men's basketball semifinal Tuesday night.
"He had great looks and he [had] confidence and he made them," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "He really stepped up tonight and did it for us."
Chaz Williams led fifth-seeded UMass (25-12) with 19 points.
Stanford (25-11) will meet the Gophers, who edged Washington 68-67 in overtime Tuesday night, in the NIT championship game Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Brown went 7-for-12 from the field, while the rest of the team was a combined 17-for-53.
The Minutemen took their first lead since early in the game with just over eight minutes left, but Brown hit a three-pointer to push the Cardinal back on top.
"There was a change in momentum, and I just wanted to do whatever I could to help the team out," the sophomore said.
