Stanford routs UCLA for Pac-10 women’s title

Southern wisdoms come naturally to Nikki Caldwell, a native of Oak Ridge, Tenn. — population 27,000.

A real smooth one rolled off her tongue Sunday, as it relates to Stanford. It’s a line the UCLA women’s basketball coach learned when she was playing and coaching at Tennessee:

“If you’re gonna get Stanford, you’re gonna get them early, [as] in December.”

This being March, that meant it was too late for the Bruins, and it was, as the thoroughly dominant No. 2-ranked Stanford team pounded No. 23 UCLA, 70-46, in the State Farm Pacific 10 women’s tournament championship at the Galen Center.

It marked Stanford’s seventh tournament title in nine years. The Cardinal also became the first team to win the title with an undefeated record in league play (18-0).

Aside from Stanford’s lone loss to No. 1 Connecticut, only UCLA stayed within single digits of the Cardinal this season: a 65-61 defeat in January. But that was then. “Late in the [season], they’re good,” Caldwell said.

Stanford’s front line of Kayla Pedersen (12 points, 11 rebounds), Nnemkadi Ogwumike (16 points, 10 rebounds) and Jayne Appel (15 points and five rebounds) is particularly good. Those three overpowered UCLA’s inside duo of Jasmine Dixon (20 points, five rebounds) and Markel Walker (nine points, eight rebounds), forcing the Bruins guards to shoot.

But most of those were bricks, and as a team, UCLA missed 36 of 54 shots.

“I felt we could have come back if our shots started to fall and we got the inside-outside looks generated better than we did,” Dixon said.

The Cardinal never trailed, and the lead stretched to 22 points midway through the second half. UCLA trimmed it to 13 with 7:15 left on a pair of Dixon free throws, but that’s as close as it got.

Dixon said the Bruins learned they can’t play passive, which they did for long stretches Sunday. “Usually we’re all there, but we weren’t there today mentally,” she said. Added her teammate Walker: “We’ve got to learn how to play for 40 minutes.”

Ogwumike was named the tournament’s most outstanding player, and Dixon and Walker were named to the all-tournament team, along with USC guard Ashley Corral.

Stanford earned the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA tournament, where it will make its 23rd consecutive appearance, most likely with a No. 1 seeding when the bracket is announced Monday. Many have Stanford as the only team with a chance against Connecticut (33-0), which has won 72 consecutive games and seems unstoppable.

Caldwell said if Stanford plays with intensity and sticks to a game plan for 40 minutes, it can be done. Cardinal Coach Tara VanDerveer said it will take excellent ball-handling, rebounding and execution. But she said her team might also be the best the Pac-10 has produced.

“It could be,” she said. “We have a lot of ingredients that make up championship teams.”

UCLA (24-7) will be dancing in March too, though it’s unknown where or at what seeding. Caldwell says that the Bruins have earned anywhere from a No. 5 to a No. 6 seeding. “Hopefully no [worse] than a 6 [seeding] would be ideal for us,” she said.

baxter.holmes@latimes.com