Colorado came into Friday truly believing it had the ability to knock off perennial power Stanford.

Unfortunately for the Buffs, they suffered the same fate that many teams do against the Cardinal.

Fourth-ranked Stanford got off to a blistering start and the 20th-ranked Buffs never recovered, falling 57-40 at Coors Events Center in the Pac-12 Conference opener.

“The beginning of the game basically killed us,” Colorado head coach Linda Lappe said.

CU (11-1, 0-1 Pac-12) dropped from the ranks of the unbeaten and Stanford (12-1, 1-0) rebounded from its first loss in impressive fashion. Stanford, which was crushed by No. 1 Connecticut on Dec. 29, extended its win streak against Pac-12 foes to 79 games.

The Buffs had turnovers on their first two possessions of the game and then missed 15 of their first 16 shots as Stanford jumped to a 17-2 lead. Six of those 15 misses were blocked by the Cardinal, including three by Joslyn Tinkle. A 6-foot-3 senior, Tinkle also had seven of Stanford’s first nine points in getting the Cardinal off to a good start.

“I just think that we were being kind of tentative,” CU senior point guard Chucky Jeffery said. “We can’t really simulate that kind of team in practice. We weren’t being as aggressive as we should have been. We weren’t playing our basketball.”

Led by Chiney Ogwumike’s 20 points and 11 rebounds, Stanford never let the Buffs back into the game during the final 30 minutes. Tinkle and Amber Orrange each had 13 points for the Cardinal.

Jeffery had a team-high 17 points for the Buffs, but the early deficit was too much to overcome. Colorado trailed 31-14 at the half, marking its lowest scoring first half ever in a home game.

Stanford extended the lead to 35-14 early in the second half before the Buffs went on an 8-2 run to show some life. That cut the deficit to 15 points with 14:11 to play, but that was as close as the Buffs would get until late in the game.

The Cardinal outscored the Buffs 32-16 in the paint and out-rebounded them 41-27.

“They’re big bodies,” CU freshman Arielle Roberson said. “We haven’t really faced that type of strength at all.”

Lappe said the Buffs missed having the male students they routinely practice against. Because CU is on holiday break, those guys were not available for practices the past few weeks.

“We have some big, tall practice guys that come in and help us,” Lappe said. “I thought that was a factor. It’s not an excuse, but it would have helped to be able to practice against what we were going to see against Stanford.”

Despite all of that, the Buffs never did quit. Down 17, Jeffery hit a jumper with 4:35 to play and then converted a three-point play with 3:30 to go, pulling the Buffs within 49-37. Ogwumike sparked a 6-1 spurt, including a steal and layup, to end CU’s comeback hopes.

“I think it’s a general thing, once you’re down its really hard to come back,” said Roberson, who had 10 points for the Buffs, extending her school-record streak to 12 consecutive double-digit scoring games to start her career. “It’s really hard to do that against a team like Stanford.”

After its dreadful start, the Buffs finished with a season-low 28.8 shooting percentage (15 of 52) for the game. CU also missed 10 of its 19 free throws. Stanford made 47.9 percent (23 of 48) of its field goal attempts.

Now looking to recover from its first loss, the Buffs said they were pleased with how they finished the game against Stanford.

“We just have to be ready to play at the beginning of the game,” Jeffery said.

Notable

The 40 points ties for the ninth-fewest in CU history, the third-fewest in a home game. … CU dropped to 2-19 all-time against teams ranked in the top four. … Stanford has not lost to a Pac-12 foe since Jan. 18, 2009, at California. … The Buffs came into the night one of just three undefeated teams in the country. Now, Connecticut and No. 3 Duke are the only unbeatens. … Stanford has held 11 of 13 opponents under 40 percent shooting and six to under 30 percent. … CU had hit at least 41 percent of its shots in 10 of 11 games and was shooting 44.5 percent on the year coming in. … Stanford leads the all-time series 8-4 and is now 3-2 in Boulder.

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Fast break

What went right

The Buffs displayed some grit during the final 30 minutes and never gave up.

What went wrong

The first 10 minutes were a disaster. The Buffs missed 15 of their first 16 shots and fell behind 17-2.

Star of the game

Chucky Jeffery. She finished with 17 points and six rebounds to keep the Buffs competitive throughout.

What’s next?

CU hosts No. 7 California on Sunday at noon.

No. 4 Stanford 57,

No. 20 Colorado 40

STANFORD

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Ruef 27 0-2 2-2 0-8 4 2 2

Ogwumike 35 8-13 4-4 4-11 0 1 20

Tinkle 32 5-8 2-2 1-6 1 4 13

Kokenis 10 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Orrange 34 6-11 1-2 2-5 6 4 13

Greenfield 21 2-4 0-2 0-0 0 2 4

James 3 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0

Lakhian 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Camp 18 2-4 0-0 0-2 0 1 5

Payne 7 0-0 0-0 2-3 0 1 0

Picknell 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Samuelson 13 0-4 0-0 0-1 1 1 0

Totals 200 23-48 9-12 11-41 13 16 57

Percentages: FG .479, FT .750.

3-Point Goals: 2-10, .200 (Camp 1-1, Tinkle 1-2, Greenfield 0-1, Ruef 0-1, Kokenis 0-1, Samuelson 0-4).

Team Rebounds: 4.

Blocked Shots: 8 (Tinkle 3, Ogwumike 3, Ruef 2).

Turnovers: 18 (Ruef 4, Camp 3, Ogwumike 3, Orrange 2, Kokenis 2, Greenfield 2, Tinkle, James).

Steals: 5 (Orrange 2, Ogwumike, Ruef, Tinkle).

Technical Fouls: None.

COLORADO

FG FT Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Roberson 32 3-11 4-8 1-3 0 1 10

Hargis 17 1-2 0-0 2-2 0 2 2

Kresl 16 0-6 0-0 1-3 0 1 0

A Wilson 15 0-2 1-2 1-2 0 1 1

Jeffery 35 7-15 2-5 1-6 2 1 17

B Wilson 13 0-5 0-0 0-1 0 2 0

M Malcolm-Peck 8 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Sborov 20 1-3 0-0 0-0 1 3 2

Reese 23 2-5 0-2 1-5 2 0 4

Weston 8 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Swan 13 1-1 2-2 1-1 0 1 4

Totals 200 15-52 9-19 11-27 6 13 40

Percentages: FG .288, FT .474.

3-Point Goals: 1-12, .083 (Jeffery 1-2, Sborov 0-1, Weston 0-1, Roberson 0-2, B. Wilson 0-3, Kresl 0-3).

Team Rebounds: 4.

Blocked Shots: 2 (Kresl 2).

Turnovers: 16 (Jeffery 6, A. Wilson 3, Kresl 2, Swan, Reese, B. Wilson).

Steals: 13 (Kresl 3, Hargis 2, Roberson 2, A. Wilson 2, Jeffery, Sborov, Reese, B. Wilson).

Technical Fouls: None.

Stanford 31 26–57

Colorado 14 26–40

A — 5,888.

Officials — Robert Scofield, Shelley Russi, Brian Woods.