STANFORD, Calif. – Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Chiney Ogwumike added 19 points and 12 rebounds and No. 4 Stanford shook off a sluggish start to beat Washington State 75-41 on Thursday night.
Joslyn Tinkle had nine points, eight rebounds and four assists as the Cardinal extended their school-record home winning streak to 72 games.
Stanford (16-1, 7-0 Pac-12) looked ragged in the early going before Nneka Ogwumike provided a spark, scoring 12 points in the first nine minutes of the second half. She then sat out the rest of the game, finishing 9 for 19 from the floor and moving into sixth place on the Cardinal's career scoring list.
Washington State (9-9, 3-3) didn't have a player in double figures and remained winless in 53 meetings between the two schools.
The Pac-12's top-shooting team going in, Stanford was out of sorts offensively for the first 14 minutes of the game. The Cardinal missed 18 of their first 24 shots, committed careless turnovers and trailed 16-13 before Nneka Ogwumike's steal and layup triggered a 16-2 run capped by Bonnie Samuelson's 3-pointer.
That was all the momentum coach Tara VanDerveer's team needed to win its 64th straight conference game, a streak likely to continue with Washington coming to Maples Pavilion on Saturday.
Once again it was the Ogwumike sisters providing the biggest spark.
Nneka Ogwumike moved past Jeanne Ruark Hoff on Stanford's charts and now has 2,055 career points. She needs eight more to slip past Nicole Powell into fifth place and only 23 to move past Val Whiting.
The Cardinal got off to a slow start against the Cougars 3-2 zone before Nneka and younger sister Chiney got them going, both scoring and working the boards. The duo combined to match Washington State's scoring total and was especially tough inside.
Chiney, the conference player of the week, had eight points coming out of halftime and got an assist on a short pass in the key to Nneka during a 24-6 blitz by Stanford that put the game out of reach.
That helped overcome a rough night from Stanford's perimeter shooting. The Cardinal were only 4 of 20 on 3s.
Stanford also got a boost from its own defense, which held the Cougars to 27.3 percent shooting.
Shalie Dheenshaw had seven points to lead Washington State, which has lost three straight under former Stanford assistant June Daugherty since opening the Pac-12 schedule with three consecutive wins.
Daugherty, who coached under VanDerveer from 1985-89, was encouraged by her team's fast start but the Cougars couldn't sustain their early momentum.
As rough a start as Stanford had shooting in the first half, it was the defense that kept it from being much of an issue.
The Cardinal forced 11 turnovers and had six steals before halftime, two from Tinkle who broke up a pass in the key and fed Toni Kokenis with a long pass and easy layup just before the buzzer to give Stanford a 31-20 lead.
Washington State, which shot 30 percent in the first half, never recovered and extended its winless streak against Stanford.
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