STANFORD, Calif. – For the second straight night to open its conference schedule, No. 15 Stanford's backcourt duo of Amber Orrange and Lili Thompson carried the Cardinal to victory, this time against Utah, 55-44, on Monday evening in Maples Pavilion.
Orrange scored 13 of her game-high 17 in the second half and grabbed seven rebounds to tie with Kaylee Johnson and Bonnie Samuelson for the team lead. Lili Thompson, who didn't play the final 5:40 after taking a fall attempting to draw a charge, scored 14 to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
"I'm just looking to shoot more. I don't think I've ever shot this many times in a game before," Orrange said of Monday's 6-for-17 performance. "Now, even if I'm missing or I don't make the right play, if I get another good look I'm still going to shoot it."
The two had impressive starts to their Pac-12 seasons for the Cardinal (10-4, 2-0), combining for 74 of Stanford's 117 points in wins over Colorado and the Utes (6-7, 0-2). Orrange averaged 21.5 in the two games, shot 48.5 percent from the floor (16-of-33) and made three of her four tries from beyond the arc. Thompson put up 15.5 per outing, made 13 of her 26 field goals (.500) and four of her five 3-point attempts.
After a sluggish first 20 minutes for both teams, Stanford pulled away in the second half, grabbing its first double-digit lead with 14:52 to go on a Thompson layup, 30-20. Samuelson, who again played some impressive defensive minutes guarding bigger players on the block tracked down a loose ball, which ended up in the hands of Stanford's sophomore guard. Thompson took a circuitous route to the bucket, weaving through a number of Utah players and putting it high off the glass.
Samuelson's seven rebounds were a career high. She had pulled down five on three occasions in 118 previous career games.
Thompson utilized a nifty reverse layup to put the Cardinal up 11, 38-27, with 11:01 on the clock before Orrange hit her patented pull-up on the next possession to join her teammate in double figures.
Stanford's advantage grew as large as 15 on late free throws from Taylor Greenfield and Samuelson. Utah was whistled for 20 fouls in the game, including 14 in the second half.
It was the first time Stanford had won a game without cracking 60 points since it beat UCLA in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 10, 2013, 51-49. Utah was held to just 28.1 percent shooting and made just 4-of-21 from deep. In its last eight games, the Cardinal hasn't allowed an opponent to score more than 59 points. Those eight teams have averaged only 49.1 points on 31.7 percent shooting.
In an interesting first half the two teams combined for more blocks (10) than assists (four). Stanford led 20-14 at the break despite shooting 26.7 percent. Utah hit just 6-of-29 and made only one field goal in the final eight minutes heading into the locker room.
Kaylee Johnson had a career-high four rejections to go along with seven points and seven rebounds and Brittany McPhee added three of her own in 10 minutes off the bench.
The Cardinal, which is 2-0 in Pac-12 play for the ninth consecutive season, makes its first league road trip next weekend when it heads to the Pacific Northwest for games at Washington (Friday, 7 p.m., Pac-12 Networks) and Washington State (Sunday, 1 p.m., Pac-12 Networks).
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(AP) - Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer, 61, broke a bone in her left arm near the wrist after falling taking a charge against 6-foot-5 Tess Picknell during practice Dec. 31.
VanDerveer said the arm is swollen and still black and blue. She will wear a brace for 4 to 6 weeks at all times except when in the shower, with hopes of quick healing. She has another one to use for exercise.
.@StanfordWBB coach @taras_tweets suffers broken bone in left arm near the wrist during practice: http://t.co/VO8X9k9XSW
— ESPN Women's Hoops (@ESPN_WomenHoop) January 6, 2015
"I'm being really disciplined about it. I don't want a cast. I want it to heal as fast as it can because it interferes with what I like to do," she said. "Tess apologized. I did it, I purposely took a charge. It was stupid."