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Palo Alto, Calif. • For the second straight year, the Utes completed a trip to the Bay Area without a win — and this season, it might cost them a whole lot more.

With 26 points, Reid Travis led Stanford to an 81-75 win on Saturday at Maples Pavilion, where the Utes have lost six straight games to the Cardinal dating to 1973. Their eighth loss of the season to one of the struggling teams in the Pac-12 made their hopes for a third straight NCAA Tournament berth look dim.

The loss was Utah's second in a row and third in four games. After a double-overtime defeat at Cal on Thursday night, the Utes (15-8, 6-5) didn't seem fully prepped for action against Stanford.

"That was a tough loss to Cal," junior Tyler Rawson said. "But that's no excuse for all the mistakes we had on the defensive end and the turnovers that ended up costing us the game."

The most fight Utah showed was at the finish: Lorenzo Bonam and Rawson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to close a nine-point gap to four in the final minute. Stanford managed three more stops and enough at the free-throw line to close out the Utes.

But the Utah team that entered as the fourth-best shooting group in the country was a shadow of itself for the second straight game.

Although Rawson had a career-high 20 points to lead the Utes, the starting guards struggled for a second straight outing. Lorenzo Bonam, Devon Daniels and JoJo Zamora had a combined 12 points on 5-for-13 shooting. Outside of Rawson, Kyle Kuzma and David Collette, the rest of the team shot only 31 percent.

Turnovers were a problem again, too: Utah had 17 to Stanford's 10, leading to 17 Cardinal points off turnovers. Utah gave away the ball 36 times the past two games.

"The backcourt needs to be better for us to win on the road," coach Larry Krystkowiak said bluntly. "We can't just have the frontcourt with that production. We didn't get a lot from our guard line. Time to regroup Monday morning."

The divergent execution of the two teams was most clear in the second half as Stanford shot 64 percent from the floor to Utah's 45 percent. While the Utes' 3-point shooting, including four by Rawson, helped keep them in it (8 for 14 in the second half), they had no answer for the 6-foot-8 Travis, whose fluid touch on his post-ups led to an 11-for-15 night and the most points he's ever scored in a conference game.

Even though Stanford gave Utah a chance to come back with some late slip-ups at the line (14 for 26), the Cardinal made 10 of their last 13 shots, including their last five.

"Travis had a heck of a game," Rawson said. "We need to do a better job — like we did to [Drew] Eubanks at Oregon State."

Utah came out early looking to establish itself in the paint as Collette and Kuzma attacked the rim. But so did Travis, who had seven points in the first half.

It quickly turned into a tug-of-war, with the Cardinal able to answer every Utah shot. The Utes couldn't score for the final 4:20 of the half, allowing Stanford to pull ahead 32-31 on a layup by Michael Humphrey.

The biggest burst of energy for Utah came late in the second half, as the team went on a 5-0 run to take a 58-54 lead before Stanford coach Jerod Haase stemmed the tide with a timeout.

Already on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, Utah suffered a dent to a resume that already lacks signature wins. But such goals were far from their minds as the Utes left Maples Pavilion with another loss.

Any win will do after a road trip like this one.

"Gotta be ready to go next week," Rawson said. "Get back to chopping wood."

kgoon@sltrib.com Twitter: @kylegoon