TEMPE, Ariz. --

In sporting events, as in real estate, a little equity is a good thing. It's what allowed the Stanford men's basketball team to sweat out a 62-59 victory over Arizona State on Saturday.

Lights-out shooting by the Cardinal over the first 25 minutes of the game created a 48-32 lead with 14:47 to go, a seemingly safe advantage that evaporated to the point where the Sun Devils had a chance to tie the game after Jonathan Gilling's three-point shot made it 62-59 with 14 seconds left.

"It was great to see the ball going in," said Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins. "Guys have confidence shooting the ball. It was probably our best shooting for a half. Everybody was hitting. It helped us get the lead."

Stanford led by as much as 34-20 in the first half before settling for a 36-28 margin at intermission after hitting 14 of 24 shots overall and 7 of 11 from beyond the three-point arc.

"We got a little buffer in the first half," said Stanford's John Gage, who scored all of his 11 points in the half, including 3-for-3 on three-pointers. "We were really good in the first half. When we get going ... we're pretty good."

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

In the game's furious final seconds, ASU's Bo Barnes missed a trey attempt with five seconds left, a held ball gave Stanford possession seconds later and Dwight Powell managed to hit the scoreboard at Wells Fargo Arena - 25 feet, 1 inch above the floor - on the inbounds with a second left, turning the ball over to the Sun Devils.

"A little too much loft," said Powell, able to joke about the unusual play afterward.

On the ASU inbounds with less than a second left, Stanford's Andy Brown intercepted the ball and the Cardinal were finally able to exhale. The win broke a logjam of five teams at 5-5 in the Pac-12 and put Stanford, for the moment, alone in fourth place at 6-5, 15-9 overall.

Arizona State, 18-6 overall, is 7-4 in conference.

"This game could come down to us versus them in the (Pac-12) tournament," Gage said. "We just want to stay above .500."

His final inbounds pass notwithstanding, Powell turned in an outstanding game for the Cardinal with 22 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks. He teamed with Josh Huestis (13 points, 12 rebounds) on the front line to create an athletic mismatch for the Sun Devils.

"In order to get back in the game we went smallball and made a flurry and, really, had some opportunities with some open looks to come back," ASU coach Herb Sendek said. "I think (Stanford) is a really good team that presents matchup problems, not just for us but for every opponent."

The strategy paid off in the second half as 6-foot-1 guard Evan Gordon, assigned to guard the 6-10 Gage, harried the taller man enough that he missed all three shots he took in the second half.

That's why it's good to have a little equity.