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Fresh from a trip to Colorado, Stanford had no problem adjusting back to the lower altitude of the Bay Area.
The fourth-ranked Cardinal proved it on a night their shooting wasn't its best.
Getting another big night from the Ogwumike sisters, Stanford got its transition game going early in the second half then rode a stellar effort from its defense to a 75-41 win over Washington State on Thursday night.
Nnemkadi Ogwumike had 22 points and 10 rebounds while Chiney Ogwumike added 19 points and 12 rebounds as the Cardinal extended their school-record home winning streak to 72 games.
I just think that (after) our last trip, maybe it's like you come back here and it's easy to run,'' Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. ''We really did get out and run well. We didn't knock down as many shots as I think we're capable of but we got out in transition and people were really sharing the ball.''
Joslyn Tinkle had nine points, eight rebounds and four assists for Stanford (16-1, 7-0 Pac-12), which looked ragged in the first half before getting a spark from its usual source.
Nneka Ogwumike scored 12 points in the first nine minutes after halftime 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.
Chiney, the conference player of the week and Nneka's younger sister, 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.
''Washington State plays a great 3-2 zone ... and it really takes a little while to make your way through as an offense,'' Chiney Ogwumike said. ''We were just trying to make the proper adjustments and by the time we really started paying attention to the particulars, it really opened up the floor.''
Washington State (9-9, 3-3) didn't have a player in double figures and remained winless in 53 meetings between the two schools.
''There were times we limited some touches but eventually they wore us down and the dam broke,'' Cougars coach June Daugherty said. ''They're fourth in the country for a reason.''
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 VanDerveer's team needed to win its 64th straight conference game, a streak likely to continue with Washington coming to Maples Pavilion on Saturday.
VanDerveer, who is often critical of her teams even in lopsided wins like this, found plenty of reason to be happy with Stanford's latest win over Washington State despite its rough start.
''What has happened to us is when we stoke up our defense and play fast, sometimes offensively it puts us out of whack a little bit,'' VanDerveer said. ''It's almost scary when you're shooting really well and you win because you're bound to have an off night. I'm excited we're doing well and shooting poorly.''
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.
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 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.
