PALO ALTO, Calif. – Utah women's basketball fell to No. 8 Stanford 87-51 Sunday afternoon in Pac-12 Conference action.
Senior wing
Paige Crozon led Utah (15-10, 4-10) in scoring with 13 points while pulling down four rebounds. Junior wing
Tanaeya Boclair added nine points with three rebounds and a steal. Sophomore guard
Erika Bean dished out six assists to add to her seven points and four rebounds.
Stanford (22-4, 12-2) was paced by Alanna Smith with 16 points as four Cardinal finished in double figures. Stanford shot 43 percent from the floor and were 20-18 from the foul line.
"We were kind of like zombies today. We looked different than we did on Friday," head coach
Lynne Roberts said. "First of all, Stanford is really good and they have really smart players who are the best that I've been around at executing a game plan.
"The punched us in the mouth in the first quarter and we didn't respond. I wish I knew why we didn't swing back, but I don't know."
In the opening minute of action Stanford used two shots to pull out to a quick 6-0 lead over Utah. A pair of experienced players for the Utes cut into the lead as junior forward
Emily Potter and Crozon connected for two points each. The Cardinal made their third 3-pointer on their third attempt, but Crozon answered at the other end to trial, 9-7. Stanford made a 9-0 run before the first media timeout for an 18-7 lead.
The timeout didn't slow down Stanford as they continued with a 18-0, broken by a free-throw from junior wing
Tilar Clark, but Utah was down 31-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Clark made another free-throw early in the second quarter and Crozon made both foul shots as the Utes reached double digits to trail 34-11. Junior wing
Malia Nawahine scored her first 3-pointer of the game and the Utes' first field goal of the quarter, 37-14.
Utah forced back-to-back turnovers by Stanford as Bean scored her first field goal of the game for two points. Bean continued her offensive push dishing out an assist to junior wing
Wendy Anae. Crozon finished the half 4-4 from the foul line as the Utes headed into the locker room down 43-20 against Stanford.
The Cardinal opened the second half with a 23-point lead, but Boclair hit a jump shot and Bean drilled a 3-pointer, however Stanford wouldn't go away. Utah scored three consecutive buckets from three different players to climb within 16 points of the Cardinal, 47-31.
Freshman wing
Megan Jacobs found her way to the basket and sophomore wing
Daneesha Provo pulled up from the free-throw line with under a minute to play in the third quarter as Utah trailed 64-39 at the end of the period.
Stanford quickly jumped out to a 30-point lead to open the fourth quarter, 73-43. The Cardinal would make it a 32-point game on a layup and continued their offensive success drilling 5-of-6 midway through the quarter for a 79-49 lead. The Cardinal outscored the Utes 21-10 in the final 10 minutes of action to claim an 87-51 win over Utah.
Utah gave up 23 points off of 22 turnovers against the Cardinal. Stanford also pulled down 20 offensive boards on its way to 29 second chance points.
"We won on Friday and any time you can get a split in the Pac-12 is a good weekend. It's not just that we lost, it's that we didn't play to character at all," Roberts said.
Utah returns home to the Jon M. Huntsman Center to host Oregon Friday at 6 p.m. and Oregon State Sunday at 2 p.m. MT. Both games will be on the Pac-12 Network or on ESPN700 with Tyson Ewing.