The No. 9 Stanford women’s basketball team won their 15th in a row Thursday night as they beat Arizona 86-76 in Tucson, despite a spirited second-half comeback attempt by the Wildcats.

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The No. 9 Cardinal held off the Wildcats' second half charge Thursday, extending their winning streak to 15 games. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/6757
Sammy Abusrur

The No. 9 Cardinal held off the Wildcats' second half charge Thursday, extending their winning streak to 15 games.

Five different Cardinal players reached double figures on the night, led by senior forward Brooke Smith with 20 points. Junior guard Candice Wiggins and freshman center Jayne Appel each chipped in 18, and junior guard Cissy Pierce set a new career-high for the second time in a week with 15 points. Senior center Kristen Newlin had 10.

Every point counted for Stanford (17-3, 10-0 Pacific-10 Conference) as Arizona poured in 76 against an unusually porous Cardinal defense. The unheralded Wildcats (7-15, 1-9 Pac-10) scored more points against Stanford than any other opponent this season except No. 4 Tennessee, all while shooting 45 percent from the floor. Stanford’s opponents were averaging 32.6 percent field goal shooting during the winning streak.

The Cardinal appeared to be running away with the game in the first half. As it has frequently done over its winning streak, Stanford held its opponent off the scoreboard early in the game. The Cardinal scored eight points before Arizona finally hit a shot. After a short run by the Wildcats to bring them back to within a point of the Cardinal at 13-12, Stanford went on a dominating 21-4 run that included eight points from Appel and five points from Pierce. Stanford stretched the lead to 22 before ending the half with a comfortable 19-point margin.

However, Arizona emerged from the locker room with a new sense of purpose, and they soon cut the lead down to 10 points amid a succession of Stanford fouls that put the Wildcats in the bonus early in the half. The fouls clearly disrupted Stanford’s play, as Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer was forced to shuffle Appel and Newlin on and off the floor for a fair portion of the half.

A string of three-pointers put Arizona within six, but Wiggins and Pierce continued to answer from behind the line to keep the Cardinal in control. Pierce was 3-for-4 from three-point range.

Four free throws from Wiggins and Smith in the final minutes put the game on ice for Stanford, who own the third-longest winning streak in the country.

Smith turned in another extraordinary all-around performance, grabbing 10 rebounds and seven assists to go along with three blocks. It is the second time this season that Smith has finished just three assists short of a triple-double. She is second on the team in that category with 78 assists in the season.

Kristen Newlin also notched a double-double on the night, pulling down 11 boards.

The Cardinal plays the second leg of its road trip at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning when it faces top conference rival No. 10 Arizona State (19-2, 9-1). The Sun Devils beat California 66-54 on Thursday night.