Utah Can't Keep Up With No. 6 Stanford, Suffers Tough Loss

Lola Pendande and Kennedy McQueen led a great effort off the bench, but it wasn't nearly enough as Utah fell behind early and failed to mount any sort of comeback against No. 6 Stanford on Sunday afternoon

Lynne Roberts knew it was going to be a tall task in taking down the No. 6 team in the country.

Unfortunately, winning taking down the Cardinal on the road proved to be a little too difficult as the Utes struggled mightily on both ends of the court, falling 83-41 on Sunday afternoon.

Final Score: #6 Stanford 83, Utah 41#GoUtes // #Elevate pic.twitter.com/SaTyxBflNJ

— Utah Women’s Basketball (@UTAHWBB) February 7, 2021

One of the rare positives for the Utes had to be the play of the bench, which scored 20 of Utah's 41 points — doing so in just 30% of the minutes played.

Lola Pendande finished with a team-high 11 points, knocking down 7-of-11 free throws, while Kennedy McQueen added five points and four rebounds, knocking down Utah's lone three-pointer.

Almost immediately since the opening tap, it was apparent what Stanford was trying to do on defense. The Cardinal wanted to take out Brynna Maxwell and Kemery Martin, two guards who've been playing extremely well as of late/

Martin entered the game averaging 17 points over the previous six games, shooting 39-of-79 (49.4%) from the floor and an astonishing 13-of-26 (50%) from beyond the arc over those six games. Likewise, Maxwell was putting up a team-high 13.4 points per game making for a dynamic scoring backcourt.

But the Cardinal strategy worked. Martin and Maxwell finished with a combined 8 points, shooting 4-of-22 from the field and 0-for-9 from three-point territory. As a team, the Utes shot 13-for-54 (24.1%) from the field and 1-for-22 (4.5%) from beyond the arc.

Q2 | 9:26 | Stanford 26, Utah 7

Knock it down @KennadyMcQueen!

Watch more here: https://t.co/GHUL3zU6lt#GoUtes // #Elevate pic.twitter.com/SKy0H79XJL

— Utah Women’s Basketball (@UTAHWBB) February 7, 2021

Utah will now return home for games agains No. 8 UCLA and USC. The Utes will tipoff with the Bruins on Friday at 11 a.m. before facing USC at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

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Twitter — @UtahUtes_SI and Ryan Kostecka at @Ryan_Kostecka