By Alexa Philippou on January 5, 2015

The No. 15 Stanford women’s basketball team improved to 2-0 in the Pac-12 and 10-4 overall after a very physical matchup against Utah, beating the Utes 55-44.

Senior point guard Amber Orrange led the team for the second game in a row with 17 points and 7 rebounds. She also excelled in Saturday’s matchup against Colorado, notching a career-high 26 points.

“I’m just looking to shoot more,” Orrange said after going 6-17 from the field. “I don’t think I’ve ever shot this many times in a game before. Usually before if I’m missing shots I probably shy away from taking them and look more to create for my teammates. Now even if I’m missing them more and don’t make the right play I think I’m still going to shoot.”

Sophomore guard Lili Thompson also contributed significantly with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Orrange and Thompson have combined for 74 of the Card’s 117 points over the last two games.

After trailing 9-6, Stanford tied it up at 12-12 before going on a 8-2 run to close out the half 20-14. Stanford scored less than 25 points in a half in only two other games this season, namely in losses to UNC and Tennessee. Both teams had low field goal percentages, with the Cardinal shooting 26.7 percent and the Utes shooting 20.7 percent, which can be attributed to their physical defenses.

“That [game] kind of reminded me of a heavyweight fight,” said head coach Tara VanDerveer. “It was just really hard for us to get into any offensive flow.”

The Utes also defended the drive well, forcing Stanford to take tough shots. While the Card played good defense against Utah, the Utes also failed to adjust their game plan in the first half: the team had many players, including its posts, shooting (and missing) long twos or threes. The Utes did not start to shoot and score more from the inside, where they had a clear size advantage, until the second half.

Stanford, the third-best three-point shooting team in the nation, also did not shoot many threes in the first half, as they only went 1-for-3.

Though both teams played physically from the start, not many fouls were called in the first half. Both teams also combined for more blocks (10) than assists (4) in the first half.

In the second half, Stanford extended its lead to double-digits after Thompson scored a layup with 14:52 to go in the game. Stanford’s largest lead was 15 after Greenfield and Samuelson scored off of free-throws. The Card’s shooting percentage improved to 50 percent and Thompson, Orrange and sophomore guard Karlie Samuelson were able to put in a few three pointers (with the team going 3-5 in the second half).

“We didn’t shoot a lot of threes [throughout the game]. They were extended out on Bonnie,” VanDerveer said. “But if Bonnie and Karlie are out there in my mind they’re giving us an assist by extending people and Amber and Lili are just going to go to the basket.”

Once the referees started calling more fouls (Utah was called for 14 and Stanford for nine), Stanford went to the free-throw line more frequently, ending the game 15-20.

“We spread out more [and] we just wanted to keep attacking the basket,” VanDerveer added about the second half. “Maybe they got a little tired. Our pressure didn’t turn the ball over as much but it sped them up a little bit, we tried to get out and run.”

Despite such impressive performances by Orrange and Thompson, many other players contributed throughout the game. Freshman forward Kaylee Johnson bounced back after a tough game against Colorado and scored 7 points, gathered seven rebounds and earned 4 blocks. Freshman guard Brittany McPhee contributed on both ends of the floor, earning 3 blocks and going 2-2 from the free-throw line. Senior guard Taylor Greenfield and senior forward Bonnie Samuelson also collected several rebounds, five and seven respectively.

Although the Cardinal scored 35 points in the second half, the 55 points the team notched are still significantly lower than the 73.4 points per game Stanford averaged prior to the matchup against the Utes. On a positive note, the Card held the Utes to less than 50 points.

The Cardinal will kick off its first away Pac-12 matchups this weekend against Washington on Friday at 7 p.m. and Washington State on Sunday at 1 p.m..

Contact Alexa Philippou at aphil723 ‘at’ stanford.edu.