Cardinal out-hustles the Utes

Tara called on the "Chinettes", Chiney's teammates, to step up and carry more of the load. They did a pretty good job of that tonight and earned a nice 65-44 win over the Utes.

The Utes were badly hurt ten minutes into the game when one of their star players, junior forward Taryn Wicijowski, went down with a knee injury.

The Utes were behind 16-5 at that point and never caught up. The Cardinal defense kept a tight rein on their star outside shooter, senior guard Iwalani Rodrigues, and held her to four points on 15% shooting. Junior forward Michelle Plouffe did her best to carry her team with a game-high 24 points, but she couldn't do it by herself.

The Cardinal didn't shoot well tonight. Their three-point game isn't back yet — they hit just three of eleven from beyond the arc (two by Jos and one by Sara). And they made just 40.3% of their field goal attempts and 70.6 % of their free throws.

But the Cardinal defense hustled and held the Utes to 25% shooting, so the Cardinal offense was good enough — tonight.

Jos put on a hustle clinic in the first two minutes of the game. She grabbed Sara's missed shot and put it back, grabbed Toni's missed shot and put it back, stole the ball from Taryn Wicijowski, and sank a three-pointer on an assist from Chiney: Stanford 7, Utah 0.

She finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, a block and a steal.

Chiney was not to be denied. She tallied 23 points and 13 rebounds for her 14th double-double of the season. She also had two assists and two blocks.

In other Pac-12 action tonight, Cal recovered from a 16-point deficit in the first half and won over Colorado by just three points.

The Cardinal's stepping-up and load-carrying needs to improve on Sunday.

Here are game reports and commentary:

• Ogwumike, No. 6 Stanford take down Utah 65-44 by Rick Eymer (Associated Press)
• Stanford defeats Utes 65-44 from the Salt Lake Tribune
• Stanford women rout Utah by Tom FitzGerald (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Tinkle pitches in to help Stanford women beat Utah by Rick Eymer (Palo Alto Online)
• Stanford stays tied for top spot in Pac-12 by Tom Taylor (Stanford Daily)
• WBB: Stanford 65, Utah 44 from the CARDboard

The box score and play-by-play,

The game highlights video,

A gallery of photos by Bob Drebin (Stanford Photo),

And photos by Dave Cortesi:

Chiney shoots

Toni beats everyone to the basket

Sara gets some air

Amber steals the ball

Too late, Plouffe!