STANFORD, Calif. – Brittany McPhee scored 18 points and No. 17 Stanford beat Utah 70-49 on Friday night for the Cardinal's fifth straight victory.
Marta Sniezek made all three of her shots from the arc and scored 11 points with four assists and Nadia Fingall added 10 points and six rebounds off the bench for Stanford (17-8, 11-2 Pac-12), which has won eight of its last nine games and is now 23-0 all-time against Utah.
Unlike last Sunday in Eugene, this time McPhee did most of her damage in the first half, scoring 16 on 7-of-10 shooting to put the game out of reach. Alanna Smith led the Cardinal off with a layup on its first possession and then McPhee reeled off nine consecutive points. When she converted a driving layup midway through the period to make it 11-4, she had accounted for 28 of Stanford's last 30 points dating back to its win at Oregon.
While McPhee was staying hot, Stanford's defense continued to give its opponent fits. Utah scored nine in the first quarter and six in the second. It went more than 10 minutes over the two periods without a field goal and shot just 18.2 percent (4-of-22).
Stanford used a 12-0 run in the second to go up by 26 and led by as many as 29 early in the fourth quarter when Kiana Williams shed her defender and nailed a 15-foot jumper from the elbow. The freshman, who was wearing a mask to protect stiches on her nose from an injury suffered in the previous game had a line of seven points, six rebounds and five assists. Williams has 14 assists and zero turnovers the last three games and hasn't turned the ball over in 94 minutes.
Fingall scored in double figures for the ninth time in her career and Sniezek the seventh. Fingall didn't miss a shot, going 4-of-4 from the floor, and also took a charge in her 21 minutes. She made both of her 3-pointers and is hitting 44 percent (11-for-25) from distance this season, tops on the team.
The Cardinal's victory kept it in a tie with Oregon and UCLA for first place in the Pac-12. Both the Ducks and Bruins won their games on Friday night.
Daneesha Provo scored 14 points and Emily Potter 12 for the Utes (15-9, 6-7), who have lost four of their past five.
Stanford took off to a 39-15 halftime lead, boosted by a 20-2 run over 10 minutes during which McPhee scored seven points and Utah missed on all eight of its field-goal attempts while turning the ball over eight times.
Stanford never led by fewer than 15 in the second half and was ahead by 29 in the fourth quarter.
The Cardinal hosts Colorado on Sunday at 3 p.m. in a game televised on Pac-12 Networks. Its seniors, Kaylee Johnson and Brittany McPhee, will be honored in a postgame ceremony.
