Utah women's basketball: Stanford defeats Utes 65-44

Stanford, Calif. • Despite 24 points and 10 rebounds from Michelle Plouffe, the Utah women's basketball team couldn't overcome a quick start by No. 6 Stanford and lost 65-44 on Friday night.

The Cardinal (17-2, 6-1 Pac-12) jumped out to leads of 7-0 and 19-5 in the first half and were up 16 at halftime. They won their third straight and for the sixth time in seven games.

Plouffe registered her second double-double of the season for the Utes (10-8, 1-6), who lost for the seventh time in eight games since opening the season 9-1. Paige Crozen added 10 points.

Plouffe did her best to keep the Utes in the game and played the final 12 minutes with four personal fouls. It still didn't prevent the Cardinal from improving to 16-0 all-time against the Utes.

The Utes shot a season-low 25 percent from the field. Stanford has held its last 37 opponents to under 70 points.

Chiney Ogwumike led Stanford with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Joslyn Tinkle added 16 points and scored the first seven points of the game.

Utah junior forward Taryn Wicijowski, sixth in the conference in scoring, left the game with an apparent right knee injury midway through the first half. She went up for a layup and crumbled to the ground. It took a few minutes to attend to her.

Wicijowski, a member of the Canadian senior national team, remained on the bench, her knee lightly wrapped, for the remainder of the game.

Losing Wicijowski made it even more difficult for the Utes to find a way to slow down Ogwumike, who has 14 double-doubles on the season and three straight.

Utah next plays Sunday at Cal at 3 p.m.