Tennessee's defense comes up big as No. 11 Lady Vols trounce No. 7 Stanford 59-40

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Ariel Massengale scored 14 of her 18 points in the second half Saturday as No. 10 Tennessee breezed past No. 7 Stanford 59-40 for its fifth consecutive victory.

Tennessee (9-2) led from start to finish and was never seriously threatened as it ended a three-game losing streak in the series. Stanford went scoreless for an eight-minute stretch and made just one basket in the last 10 minutes of the first half.

Stanford (6-4) has lost consecutive games for the first time since December 2010. The Cardinal lost 54-46 at Chattanooga on Wednesday. Lili Thompson had 13 points for Stanford.

Bashaara Graves had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Tennessee. Isabelle Harrison also scored 10 points.

The Cardinal trailed 27-15 at the intermission after shooting 5 of 21 and committing 12 turnovers in the first half. After Lili Thompson's 3-pointer cut Tennessee's lead to 31-22 with 14:44 remaining, Massengale scored the game's next eight points to put the Lady Vols in command.

Massengale sank four 3-pointers and scored 14 points in a span of just over five minutes to spark an 18-5 run that put the game away.

Tennessee's football and men's basketball teams watched the game from the student section behind one basket. The men's basketball players wore Lady Vols shirts and went on the court and formed a tunnel the women's players ran through during pregame introductions. They also threw T-shirts into the stands during a time-out.

Stanford: The Cardinal shot below 30 percent for a second straight game. After shooting 27.7 percent in its loss to Chattanooga, Stanford shot 25.5 percent against Tennessee.

Tennessee: About 100 fans gathered at the Pat Summitt Plaza across the street from the arena for a pregame rally to keep the Lady Vols nickname and logo for all women's sports. Tennessee announced last month that all women's sports other than the basketball team would simply be named the Volunteers starting next year.

RANKING

This was just the second time that Tennessee and Stanford had faced each other with neither team ranked in the top five. The only other time it happened was when No. 7 Tennessee beat No. 8 Stanford 84-77 on Dec. 30, 1990. They met again later that season in the Final Four, with Tennessee going on to win the 1991 national title.

Stanford had won the last three games in this annual series by getting huge performances from post players Nneka Ogwumike in 2011 and Chiney Ogwumike in 2012 and 2013. Now that both sisters are in the WNBA, Tennessee had a much easier time slowing Stanford's offense.

It's first time Stanford has scored below 50 points in consecutive games since 1976-77 season.

UP NEXT

Stanford: Hosts UC Davis on Monday.