STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Arizona has played enough close games at Maples Pavilion in recent seasons to understand the importance of defense down the stretch.
Gabe York made a long 3-pointer with 8:24 left on the way to 19 points, and No. 12 Arizona survived a Stanford rally midway through the second half for a 71-57 victory Thursday night.
Ryan Anderson added 18 points on 7-for-7 shooting and eight rebounds for the Wildcats (16-3, 4-2 Pac-12).
Marcus Sheffield scored 17 points for the Cardinal, coming off a 77-71 win against Bay Area rival Cal on Thursday. They faced a team either ranked or receiving votes in the AP poll for the fifth time in six games and shot 4 for 21 from 3-point range.
Arizona's Kadeem Allen went down in the corner by his team's bench with 10:55 left then briefly left for the locker room before returning.
Grant Verhoeven provided a big lift in the second half for Stanford (10-7, 3-3), but the Cardinal went cold when it counted as Arizona pulled away for good.
Verhoeven's three-point play with 15:35 remaining pulled Stanford within 39-37, then he converted another three-point play at 14:19 before a pair of missed free throws by Kaleb Tarczewski. Verhoeven took a charge at 13:20.
Stanford then made just two of its next 14 field-goal tries and went nearly 9 minutes between baskets.
"I thought our defense was really the constant from start to finish," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "It might have been our best overall defensive performance."
Two years ago and ranked No. 1, Arizona escaped with a 60-57 win, then an 89-82 victory by the seventh-ranked Wildcats last January.
"We were a little hesitant because they played so many different zones," York said. "In the second half, we settled in, played well, tight defense."
The Cardinal began the game 1 for 8 to fall behind 12-4 but Arizona had an offensive drought of its own missing nine of 10 shots during a stretch late in the half as the Cardinal stayed within 31-30 at the break.
"We had a little lapse in the second half defensively," said Stanford's Dorian Pickens, who added 11 points. "They got in a rhythm there and got comfortable."
Arizona's Parker Jackson-Cartwright, who had two big games in sweeping the Washington schools last weekend with 13 total points and 18 assists, was limited to no points and three assists.
"We gave up 40 second-half points," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "They made the stops in the second half when they had to. We went through a drought of not scoring the basketball."
Stanford returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 23, hosting Arizona State at 8 p.m. PT.