No. 4 Stanford routs Washington 80-51
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nnemkadi Ogwumike led five Stanford players in double figures with 16 points and 11 rebounds, and the fourth-ranked Cardinal scored the first 11 points on their way to a 80-51 rout of Washington on Friday night.
The Cardinal (13-2, 4-0 Pac-10) won their 10th straight over the Huskies in their first game away from the Bay Area since their upset of Connecticut that ended the Huskies' record win streak at 90. The Cardinal bolted to a big early lead, never trailed and easily held off the undermanned Huskies.
Jeanette Pohlen added 15 points and Kayla Pedersen scored 14 for the Cardinal.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Charmaine Barlow and Mackenzie Argens each scored nine points to lead Washington (6-8, 1-4), but the Huskies lost for the fifth time in six games.
Friday was the first stop for Stanford in a stretch of playing six of eight away from Maples Pavilion, where the Cardinal are riding a 54-game home win streak.
Stanford hadn't ventured away from the San Francisco area since losing consecutive road games at DePaul and Tennessee in the middle of December. Since dropping those two, the Cardinal have run off seven straight — and none were particularly close.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}All seven victories were by double figures, the closest being the Cardinal's 12-point upset of Connecticut. Stanford's four Pac-10 victories thus far are by an average of 35.5 points.
The Cardinal play at Washington State on Sunday, and are 50-0 all-time against the Cougars. Stanford's first conference test is likely to come next Thursday when it hosts No. 10 UCLA.
But this wasn't the prettiest performance from the Cardinal. They shot 46 percent and committed 18 turnovers, matching their season high set in the loss to DePaul. Both Chiney Ogwumike and Joslyn Tinkle finished with 10 points for the Cardinal.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Stanford put this one out of reach early, holding Washington scoreless until Regina Rogers' basket more than four minutes into the first half.
After its initial scoring blitz, the Cardinal went quiet for much of the first half. Washington made just two of its first 13 shots, but only trailed 21-13 late in the first half. Stanford then closed the half with a 15-8 spurt and pushed its lead to 15 at the break. Pohlen scored on a hard-driving three-point play in the final minute and Tinkle's 3-pointer at the buzzer pushed the Cardinal ahead 36-21.
Then the Ogwumike sisters combined to score the first eight points of the second half for Stanford, and the lead reached 19 on Pohlen's basket 4 minutes into the half. Stanford pulled away in the final minutes, just missing a fourth straight conference win by at least 30 points.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Washington leading scorer Kristi Kingma was harassed all night by Pohlen — with plenty of help — and finished with six points on 3 of 11 shooting. But the Huskies also struggled with foul trouble. Forward Marjorie Heard and Rogers were both on the bench barely five minutes into the second half with four fouls. Rogers fouled out with 6:03 remaining after getting called for a push on an inbound play. Rogers finished with six points.
Stanford has now won 14 of its last 15 against Washington, the only loss coming early in the 2005-06 season, a 77-72 setback in Seattle.