Tim Taylor canned a 20-foot tie-breaking jumper from the top of the key with four seconds remaining and Homer Rivers calmly sank a pair of free throws with two seconds left to lift little Chico State past undefeated Stanford 82-78 in Palo Alto, California, at the outset of the 1982-83 season, giving the visiting Wildcats one of the biggest victories in school history while handing first-year head coach Tom Davis his first loss at Stanford.
Coming off a huge win against St. Mary's, Stanford had won it's first five games that season while Div. II Chico State had dropped four of its first five contests.
"Chico played very well," acknowledged Davis, who had guided Lafayette and Boston College to eleven consecutive winning seasons before taking over the helm at the Pac-10 school. "It may have been a letdown following our victory over St. Mary's, but our opponent had a lot to do with that, forcing us to make errors that we do not ordinarily make."
Chico stole the ball thirteen times and forced the Cardinal into an uncharacteristic 24 turnovers.
Chico State's guard tandem of Taylor and Rivers paced the winners with 24 and 22 points, respectively. The hot-shooting Taylor, who holds the school record for most field goals in a game --- 18 against Toledo --- made 13 of 18 shots from the floor while Rivers buried a brisk 9 of 14 shots while dishing off seven assists.
It was an amazing upset, especially given the fact that Chico State only took a paltry eleven shots from the charity stripe compared to Stanford's 32 free throw attempts.