STANFORD, Calif. – Kaylee Johnson set the tone and her teammates followed. Stanford's senior had eight points, 12 rebounds and five blocks to lead the Cardinal to a 71-45 home victory over Washington on Sunday night.
Alanna Smith led all scorers with 19, Brittany McPhee chipped in 15 and DiJonai Carrington gave the Cardinal (11-7, 5-1) a lift off the bench, putting up 11 points, five rebounds and a career-high five assists in 27 minutes.
Johnson scored Stanford's first six points and the Cardinal, up just eight at the break, pulled away with a dominant second half in which it outscored the Huskies (6-11, 0-6) 40-22.
Stanford ended the third quarter on a 6-0 spurt and then started nailing almost everything in the fourth. The Cardinal made 5-of-8 from deep in the final period and nine of its 13 overall attempts from the floor. Smith scored 10 of her game-high 19 in the final quarter and Stanford assisted on eight of its nine buckets to seal the win, its 17th straight at home over UW.
Stanford would go up by as many as 15 late in the second quarter, 31-16, when it held Washington (6-11, 0-6) without a field goal for almost five minutes, but the Huskies took momentum into the locker room by scoring seven straight in the final 49 seconds.
The swing started when Hannah Johnson made a 3-pointer from the wing. The basket was initially taken off the board as Nadia Fingall was whistled for a foul trying to fight through a screen before the release, but the officials conferred and determined the foul and shot happened simultaneously. The 3-pointer was good and Jenna Moser made her two free throws to complete the five-point play. A turnover on the next Stanford possession resulted in a Johnson layup for UW and the Huskies had life.
The second half started with Stanford's Johnson swatting Washington's Amber Melgoza and that signaled the start of the Cardinal's dominant final 20 minutes. McPhee made two free throws at 7:57 in the third to put her team on top 37-27 and the Huskies wouldn't again get the deficit to single digits.
Kaylee Johnson tied a career high with five blocks. It's the third time she's done it and first since her sophomore year. In Stanford's sweep of the Washington schools this weekend, Johnson averaged nine points, 13.5 rebounds and shot nearly 70 percent from the floor.
"The aggressive that Kayl shows is contagious and the rest of our team catches on," Smith said of her teammate's performance.
Stanford's defense was strong yet again, especially McPhee and Carrington on Washington's leading scorer Melgoza. The Cardinal had been holding its opponent's top offensive threat to just 25 percent shooting in conference and Sunday was no different. Melgoza, averaging 17.7 points per game coming in, made just 2-of-10 from the floor and scored five.
After shooting just 39.3 percent in 12 nonconference games, Stanford has hit 44.8 percent in its first six Pac-12 contests. The Cardinal made 49 percent (25-of-51) against Washington.
The Cardinal hits the road next weekend for games at USC and UCLA on Friday and Sunday. Both will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.