Stanford took a while to get untracked against Cal on Thursday night at Maples Pavilion, but the Bears seemingly didn’t get untracked at all.

The Cardinal opened Pac-12 play on the right track with a 68-52 victory.

Guard Daejon Davis led Stanford (12-2) with a game-high 20 points and a game-high five assists. The Cardinal also got double-figure scoring from fellow guards Tyrell Terry (14 points) and Bryce Wills (10).

Cal had won the previous two times it came to Maples. During the week, Stanford head coach Jerod Haase mentioned the Bears’ recent success at Stanford to his players.

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After the game, Davis was asked how many times Haase had stressed that fact leading in the lead-up to the game.

“Enough. Enough,” Davis cracked. “He got his point across.”

Amazingly, Davis had more assists than the entire Cal team, which finished with three. The Bears (6-8), who’ve lost four in a row, had all of one assist for the first 31 minutes.

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Cal head coach Mark Fox said the Bears’ paltry assist total resulted partly from the 18 turnovers they committed.

“When you turn it over 18 times, you take away 18 possible shots at the basket,” Fox said. “Obviously, we know we’re a work in progress offensively. When your two best shooters aren’t shooting it great, you’re not going to have a lot of assists.”

The two shooter to whom Fox referred, guards Matt Bradley and Kareem South, combined to 6-for-24 from the floor.

Haase credited the defense of Davis and Wills for the Cardinal’s ability to shut down Bradley and South. Haase called Davis and Wills “are as good of a tandem (as there is) in college basketball defensively ... because of their athleticism, because of their savvy and knowledge.”

Bradley, who came into Thursday leading the Bears in scoring at 17.5 points per game, had 13, but only two in the first half when he went 1-for-8 from the field.

Cal forward Grant Anticevich had a team-high 16 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Cal trailed by 15 three minutes into the second half. After a Bradley drive with 12½ minutes left, the Bears had cut their deficit to nine at 44-35.

Stanford responded with an 8-0 run. Davis had a hand in all eight points. He nailed two foul shots, converted a three-point play and then fed Spencer Jones for a 3 that gave the Cardinal a 17-point edge.

The Bears got no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

In a 72-56 loss to Kansas on Sunday, nearly eight minutes elapsed before Stanford scored and the Cardinal didn’t make a field goal for nearly 12 minutes.

On Thursday, the Cardinal didn’t score until a Davis slam off a Cal turnover 3½ minutes into the game. Of course, because the Bears were struggling mightily on offense as well, Davis’ bucket tied the game 2-2.

Cal did lead 7-2 before Stanford’s second basket, a crossunder layup by Wills.

That ignited an 11-0 Stanford run that Isaac White capped with a 3-pointer to put the Cardinal in front 13-7.

Neither looked particularly smooth on offense in the opening 20 minutes. The Bears committed 11 turnovers and went 8-for-29 (27.6%) from the floor. The Cardinal committed five turnovers and went 13-for-31 (41.9%) from the floor.

A key sequence came in the final 33 seconds. The Cardinal led 27-21 before Oscar da Silva scored from inside.

The Bears then had the opportunity to run down the clock until the last few seconds and ensure they went to the locker room down by no more than eight.

They then, in Fox’s words, made “as poor of a play as you can possibly have in basketball.”

Juhwan Harris-Dyson got called for traveling with 16 seconds remaining. Stanford made the Bears pay for that mistake.

Davis found Jaiden Delaire alone in the left corner. Delaire buried a 3 and the half ended with Stanford on top 32-21.

Steve Kroner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: skroner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveKronerSF