STANFORD, Calif. ? For nearly 18 minutes, Washington State coach June Daugherty saw just about everything she wanted to from her team.
The Cougars took everything No. 4 Stanford threw at them and even built an early lead against the Cardinal before it all fell apart in the second half. That's when Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer switched defenses and Washington State failed to adjust, losing 75-41 on Thursday night.
"I thought we really were on point as far as running our game plan (early)," Daugherty said. "We mixed up the defenses quite a bit and then offensively ... when we didn't have good shots, we spaced the floor, moved to cut a lot better and tried to force Stanford to play into the shot clock a little bit."
It's the second time in their last five games that the Cougars (9-9, 3-3 Pac-12) have gotten off to a quick start, only to see it go to waste in the second half.
Washington State didn't have a player in double figures, shot just 27.7 percent for the game and remained winless in 53 meetings against Stanford.
"I just thought they came out and were really aggressive," VanDerveer said of the Cougars. "I don't think the score indicates how well they played. I just think they got a little discouraged and we turned it up in the second half."
Shalie Dheenshaw had seven points to lead Washington State, which has lost three straight under Daugherty, a former Stanford assistant June Daugherty, since opening the Pac-12 schedule with three consecutive wins.
Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Chiney Ogwumike added 19 points and 12 rebounds while Joslyn Tinkle had nine points, eight rebounds and four assists as the Cardinal extended their school-record home winning streak to 72 games.
Stanford (16-1, 7-0 Pac-12) looked ragged in the early going before Nneka Ogwumike provided a spark, scoring 12 points in the first nine minutes of the second half. She then sat out the rest of the game, finishing 9 for 19 from the floor and moving into sixth place on the Cardinal's career scoring list.
The Pac-12's top-shooting team going in, Stanford was out of sorts offensively for the first 14 minutes of the game. The Cardinal missed 18 of their first 24 shots, committed careless turnovers and trailed 16-13 before Ogwumike's steal and layup triggered a 16-2 run capped by Bonnie Samuelson's 3-pointer.
Ogwumike moved past Jeanne Ruark Hoff on Stanford's charts and now has 2,055 career points. She needs eight more to slip past Nicole Powell into fifth place and only 23 to move past Val Whiting.
The Cardinal got off to a slow start against the Cougars 3-2 zone before Nneka and younger sister Chiney got them going, both scoring and working the boards. The duo combined to match Washington State's scoring total and was especially tough inside.
Chiney, the conference player of the week, had eight points coming out of halftime and got an assist on a short pass in the key to Nneka during a 24-6 blitz by Stanford that put the game out of reach.
That helped overcome a rough night from Stanford's perimeter shooting. The Cardinal were only 4 of 20 on 3s.
Stanford also got a boost from its own defense, which held the Cougars to 27.3 percent shooting. VanDerveer, who has juggled her lineup in recent weeks, had the Cardinal move to a high 2-3 zone which gave Washington State fits.
"That's when we struggled the most," Daugherty said. "We missed some very easy layups and they stayed in it. Of course you'd stay in it when teams are missing easy layups."
As rough a start as Stanford had shooting in the first half, it was the defense that kept it from being much of an issue.
The Cardinal forced 11 turnovers and had six steals before halftime, two from Tinkle who broke up a pass in the key and fed Toni Kokenis with a long pass and easy layup just before the buzzer to give Stanford a 31-20 lead.
Washington State, which shot 30 percent in the first half, never recovered and extended its winless streak against Stanford.
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