TUCSON, Ariz. – For the second consecutive game, No. 12 Stanford let a double-digit lead slip away, this time falling at Arizona, 60-57, in Tucson on Sunday afternoon.
Stanford (17-7, 9-3), which was up by as many 14 early in the second half, trailed by three with five minutes to go. The Cardinal then used an 11-0 run to take a 54-46 lead on a Taylor Greenfield 3-pointer with 2:14 remaining, but the Wildcats (9-14, 2-10) closed by scoring 14 of the game's final 17 points to earn its first win over Stanford since 2004.
The Cardinal was up one, 57-55, when Bonnie Samuelson's 3-pointer from the top of the circle rimmed out. Candice Warthen grabbed the rebound and ran the length of the court, drawing a charge on Lili Thompson.
Warthen made the first at the line and missed the second, but the ball skipped out of bounds off Stanford and after an official review the call on the floor was confirmed. Inbounding under the Cardinal's basket, Arizona got the ball to Warthen in the corner. She curled around a screen, lifted and drained an elbow jumper to put the Wildcats on top, 58-57, with 1.9 seconds left.
Stanford's last-ditch efforts were for naught and Warthen sank two late free throws to cap off her 19-point, nine-rebound performance. Arizona won its first game over the Cardinal since Feb. 5, 2004 and snapped Stanford's 25-game winning streak in the series.
Arizona closed the game on a 10-0 run, scoring all 10 in the game's final minute, with seven points in the defining spurt scored by Warthen.
Lili Thompson opened the second half with a layup to match Stanford's largest lead of the game, 32-18, with 19:31 to go. From that point on, the Cardinal would go nearly 10 minutes without hitting a field goal, only sinking four free throws in that time.
The team's 0-of-12 stretch was ended when Amber Orrange jetted around her defender for a layup. The senior captain then stole the ensuing inbounds pass and laid it in again to put a brief halt to the onslaught and give Stanford a bit of breathing room, 40-35.
A 10-0 run brought Arizona within four, 32-28, and the Wildcats kept coming. They pulled to within one on four occasions before a LaBrittney Jones bucket in the paint gave Arizona a 44-43 lead with 5:46 left, its first edge since early in the first half.
Coupled with Friday night's 53-52 setback at No. 10 Arizona State, Stanford was swept over a conference weekend for the first time since it traveled to Los Angeles and dropped games to UCLA (Jan. 4) and USC (Jan. 6) in 2008. Stanford's seven overall losses and three conference losses are both the program's highest totals since 2005-06, when the Cardinal went 26-8 and 15-3 in the Pac-10 en route to a NCAA Regional Final. This season marks the first since 2000-01 that Stanford has had multiple two-game losing streaks.
Amber Orrange and Lili Thompson led Stanford with 13 points apiece. It was Orrange's seventh-straight game in double figures, matching a career high. Kaylee Johnson grabbed 11 rebounds, her 13th double-digit effort of the year and fourth straight.
Stanford, which is now 15-3 following a loss since 2010-11, will attempt to get back in the win column when it hosts USC on Friday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. in a game televised on the Pac-12 Networks.