STANFORD, Calif. – Freshmen Hailee Swain and Lara Somfai combined to score 27, including 21 in the second half, and Stanford used a dominant fourth quarter to beat No. 22 Washington 67-62 in Maples Pavilion on Friday night.
Trailing by eight, the Cardinal opened the final period on a 10-0 run to go up 52-50 with 4:49 to go, its first lead since midway through the second quarter. The run, in which five different players scored, was fueled by its defense. Stanford forced five of its 10 steals in the first half of the fourth and outscored UW 25-12 in the final 10 minutes to pick up its first ranked win since beating No. 13 Oregon State in the Pac-12 Tournament on March 8, 2024.
Two of those late steals led directly to fastbreak layups. Chloe Clardy pounced on a loose ball and pushed ahead to Shay Ijiwoye for an easy lay-in with 8:13 to go to make it 50-46 and Swain jumped in the passing lane to pick off a pass and took it herself to tie the game 50-50 with 6:28 left.
Washington missed its first five shots in the fourth, had eight turnovers and was run over by a Cardinal offense that shot 52.9 percent to close it out.
Courtney Ogden had four points entering the final frame and poured in eight in the fourth, Somfai added six and Swain five.
The final tie came at 58-58 on a 3-pointer from Elle Ladine. Stanford went ahead for the last time when Somfai missed a layup with 1:14 on the clock but followed her own miss and made a nice shovel pass underneath the hoop for a second-chance jumper from Ogden.
The Cardinal had four offensive rebounds in the first three quarters and four in the fourth, including two big ones on free throws with under 10 seconds to play. Clardy missed her second at the line but raced off the strip to grab her own miss and get fouled in the process. She split a pair again to put Stanford up four and this time it was Ogden on the offensive glass to secure an extra opportunity. She split her two and the Cardinal was up five with three seconds to go.
Ijiwoye was huge in her 14 minutes off the bench. Stanford was a game-high +13 with her on the floor.
Stanford led for just 6:25 in the game. There were seven ties and nine lead changes.
The Cardinal had dropped 10 in a row to AP Top 25 opponents.
Somfai (14), Swain (13), Ogden (12) and Clardy (11) were Stanford’s scorers in double figures. Ogden also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Stanford has a quick turnaround, playing another former Pac-12 foe in Oregon on Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Chase Center as part of the Invisalign Bay Area Women’s Classic.