Question marks abound for Stanford in wake of lackluster win

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With just one game left before Pac-12 play, the Stanford Cardinal don’t appear ready to extend their run of 14 straight regular-season conference titles.

They are getting very little offensively from their post players, and their normally reliable guards, Lili Thompson and Amber Orrange, are in scoring slumps.

After losing on the road to toughies Chattanooga and Tennessee last week — dropping them from seventh to 16th in this week’s Associated Press poll — the Cardinal were hard-pressed to beat a 4-7 UC Davis team 71-59 Monday at Maples Pavilion. They haven’t been ranked this low since Jan. 4, 2006.

This time, they were rescued by Bonnie Samuelson, who pumped in 30 points, hitting 6 of 10 three-pointers. It was Stanford’s first 30-point game for somebody outside the Ogwumike family in four years. Samuelson’s sister Karlie added three treys and nine points, and freshman Kaylee Johnson had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

At the moment, though, the Cardinal look nothing like the team that knocked off then-No. 1 Connecticut on Nov. 17.

They were lethargic defensively at times against UC Davis, which had been crushed by UConn 102-43 and Arizona State 72-51 and had also lost to St. Mary’s, USF, Santa Clara and San Jose State. The Cardinal also were outrebounded 35-30 and didn’t have a single fastbreak basket.

“We’re really struggling offensively,” Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said. “Our pace is not where we want to be. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Her 7-4 team has played one of the toughest schedules in the country. “We’re not going to play anybody better (in the Pac-12) than we’ve already played,” VanDerveer said.

Bonnie Samuelson splits two UC Davis defenders in the second half. She had six three-pointers among her 30 points. Bonnie Samuelson splits two UC Davis defenders in the second half. She had six three-pointers among her 30 points. Photo: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press Photo: Jeff Chiu / Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Question marks abound for Stanford in wake of lackluster win 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

But UC Davis is far from an upper-echelon team.

The Aggies’ attack was pretty much limited to 6-foot-3 forward Alyson Doherty with 17 points and guard Sydnee Fipps with 13.

Stanford’s standout guards were conspicuously off form. Thompson scored three points, 15 below her average, and Orrange had eight points.

The lead changed hands eight times in the first half, which ended with Stanford up 34-30. In the second half, the Aggies cut the lead to 39-38, but Stanford soon opened a 48-40 bulge with just under 15 minutes left. After a UC Davis closed the gap with a 5-0 run over the next four minutes, Stanford took control, with Bonnie Samuelson hitting two more threes while building the lead to 65-53 with three minutes left.

“We battled one of the top teams in the country, so we obviously feel good about that,” UC Davis coach Jennifer Gross said. On defense, she said, her team “did a good job loading up the key. Unfortunately, that left Bonnie open, and she made us pay tonight.”

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomfitzgerald