Playing on Stanford’s home court of Maple Pavilion, the Michigan women’s basketball team knew it would be a battle against one of the best programs in the country. With their season on the line, the Wolverines needed to play their best basketball of the year to have any chance to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.

Things looked promising for Michigan (9-7 Big Ten, 22-11 overall) when senior guard Jenny Ryan swished a 3-pointer at the 18:29 mark in the first half to tie the early game, 3-3.

But on the next possession for top-seeded Stanford (17-1 Pac 12, 33-2), junior forward Chiney Ogwumike tapped out a missed shot to Joslyn Tinkle, who put the ball back in for an easy layup, giving the Cardinal a two-point lead.

That would only start the scoring barrage for Stanford, as it continued to make shot after shot from deep in its 73-40 blowout victory.

“Anytime you start a game, you want to start with the first punch, and they started comfortably, making all those shots,” Ryan said. “Once they got on that roll, they just kept going and it was their night. They started off strong and never looked back.”

Leading the way for the Cardinal was Tinkle, who made her first four shots from the field to post 11 points in the first stanza in a shade over seven minutes of action. She finished with a team-high 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting while grabbing seven rebounds.

The Wolverines’ problems guarding threes compounded, as the Cardinal went 8-for-14 from beyond the arc in the first half to comfortably push its lead to 20-plus points.

“They really shared the basketball extremely well and knocked down shots,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “Some were open shots. Some were tough shots. I was very impressed with how they played tonight. I can see why they’re the No. 1 seed.”

Meanwhile, Michigan went 0-for-6 from deep following Ryan’s triple to begin its night of scoring. Five of those missed attempts were by senior forward Kate Thompson, who posted just three points in the first half as the Wolverines were outshot 60 percent to 27 percent from the field.

But shooting wasn’t the only issue for Michigan. The Wolverines managed just eight rebounds in the first half, while Stanford had 15 in the stanza – Ogwumike had eight by herself and 15 in the game. Michigan finished with just 17, paling in comparison to the Cardinal’s 34.

“We didn’t even have an opportunity to grab any because they made pretty much all the shots that they took,” Barnes Arico said. “We knew (Ogwumike) would be difficult. I thought we did a decent job at times on her. They’re were tips and deflections that we weren’t able to come up with loose balls. And I thought that really hurt us compared to our actual rebounding on her. She kept balls alive.”

Down by 25 points at halftime, the only chance that the Wolverines had at a comeback was to shoot at the extreme rate that Stanford did to begin the game.

That didn’t happen.

The Cardinal continued to shoot the lights out of the gym, knocking down four more 3-pointers as it coasted between high 20-point and low 30-point leads in the half.

While Ryan would go on to lead to Michigan with 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting, it was all for moot, as the captain’s collegiate career came to an end. The loss also marked the end for four other Wolverine seniors, Thompson and forwards Rachel Sheffer, Nya Jordan and Sam Arnold. The seniors ended their careers with 80 wins, making them the winningest class in Michigan history.

Michigan is now eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, and Stanford will advance to the Sweet 16 to play Georgia. After the way it played tonight, Barnes Arico has no doubts Stanford can win it all.

“You are not 33-2 and not an outstanding basketball team,” she said. “The teams that they lost to are incredible teams to have that record. I think if they continue to play that way, they can challenge for the National Championship.”