For the second time this season, the Arizona women's basketball team was defeated by No. 4 Stanford, with its most recent loss coming last night in Maples Pavilion, 91-74.
Stanford extends its home winning streak to 18 games, while Arizona falls to a 15-7 mark overall, 7-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference. The Wildcats lost their second consecutive game after falling to No. 20 Maryland in overtime Saturday.
The Wildcats out-rebounded the Cardinal 36 to 29 but committed 25 turnovers to Stanford's 14.
In the first half the Wildcats were without their one-two punch. Senior point guard Dee-Dee Wheeler was benched for the entire half and junior center Shawntinice Polk did not start for violating undisclosed team rules.
According to a Stanford press release, Polk's violation took place last weekend while Wheeler's happened Thursday.
Polk first stepped onto the court at 17:14 in the first half but ended the night with a team-high 20 points and 10 rebounds, good for her sixth double-double of the season. Wheeler collected 11 points in 19 minutes.
"I was really proud of Dee-Dee," said Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini. "She was very good off the bench. She did an excellent job."
In addition to the absences of Polk and Wheeler, freshman guard Jessica Arnold was held to only 24 minutes after suffering a concussion during Arizona's loss to Maryland. She finished with six points, two rebounds and three assists.
"We've had a number of injuries," Bonvicini said. "Jess Arnold was injured yesterday. That's why she came off the bench. That's why she's not 100 percent."
Senior center Danielle Adefeso tallied 13 points and junior guard Natalie Jones notched 12.
Sophomore forward-center Shannon Hobson played six minutes in her first game since injuring her left knee Jan. 14 at USC .
Stanford got off to an early 11-2 lead in the first half, as the Wildcats committed 10 turnovers in their first 13 possessions. The Cardinal didn't look back, heading into the locker room at halftime up 46-24.
Arizona was able to penetrate the glass in the first half, bringing down 24 boards to the Cardinal's 18. The Wildcats committed 18 turnovers and 12 fouls on the half.
Stanford maintained its first-half lead for the remainder of the game, leading by as many as 28 points.
Arizona went on a late 7-0 run to cut the Cardinal lead to 20, as part of a 50-45 Wildcats advantage in the second half, but it was too little too late.
"There was too big a whole to make up (in the second half)," Bonvicini said. "Stanford is a very, very good basketball team. We need to get healthy."
"I was very proud of our team in the second half," she said. "I felt a lot better. We grew up a lot today."
Arizona was defeated by the Cardinal, 78-66, on Jan. 9 in McKale Center, snapping the Wildcats 34-game home winning streak. Stanford has now beat Arizona nine times in the teams' last 11 matchups.
The Wildcats head to Berkeley, Calif., to take on California tomorrow at 3 p.m. The Golden Bears (8-13, 2-10) fell to ASU last night, 76-59.
"We'll get everyone back (against California)," Bonvicini said. "The big thing for us is getting healthy. This is a very important game we're going to play."