COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENTS : Stanford Handles Irvine Easily : West women: Second-seeded Cardinal pounds Anteaters, 88-55, closing out UCI’s most successful season in years.

Thirteen years ago, Jinelle Williams’ mother, who worked at Stanford, dragged Williams and her two sisters to a women’s basketball game at Maples Pavilion. It was hardly a defining moment in Williams’ life; she only vaguely remembers it and didn’t start playing basketball until five years later.

But Thursday night, her basketball experience came full circle in the same building, and what began with a whimper ended with a bang as the Cardinal body-slammed UC Irvine out of the NCAA tournament with an 88-55 victory in front of 5,350.

Stanford (27-2) will play Southern Methodist in the sub-regional final here Saturday night. The Mustangs, who established an NCAA tournament record by attempting 91 field goals, beat Southern Mississippi, 96-95, in overtime.

If the SMU-Southern Mississippi game was a classic shootout, the Cardinal-Anteater game was a world-class blowout. Still, just getting here was a victory for Williams, Cher Scanlon and Michele Kahler, the Anteater seniors who never won more than five games in their first three seasons at Irvine. The Anteaters finished 19-11, which is one victory more than they had in the previous five seasons combined.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished this year,” Irvine Coach Colleen Matsuhara said, “and this experience will be a building block for next year. Irvine’s tradition started here. That will be our rallying cry for next year.”

The Cardinal probably didn’t need much motivation against Irvine, but was inspired by what it perceived as a snub by the NCAA selection committee. Coach Tara VanDerveer said being seeded No. 2 in the West was akin to asking for a puppy for your birthday, “but you get a gerbil.”

Thursday night, it got an Anteater, which turned out to be just about as fierce as a gerbil. Irvine played inspired basketball for the first seven minutes, missed only a couple of shots, and trailed the Cardinal, 14-13. But Stanford’s athleticism, depth and huge height advantage began to take their toll.

“That’s the tallest women’s basketball team I’ve ever seen,” Matsuhara said. “When they were warming up in front of our bench, I said I couldn’t see the rest of the scenery. And then Tara kept bringing in fresh people and wore us down.”

Freshman Kristin Folkl, an All-American volleyball player, came off the bench midway through the first half and wowed the crowd with an assortment of athletic drives and turnaround jumpers. She scored 14 points in the final 5 minutes 34 seconds of the first half and Stanford led at the intermission, 48-29.

Irvine shot a respectable 40% in the first half, but the Cardinal, working the ball inside for short bank shots and layups, were shooting 68%. Stanford finished the game shooting 59%. And the Anteaters couldn’t keep up on the boards. Stanford had a 21-12 rebounding advantage in the first half and ended up with 42-33 margin.

And then it just got worse. When Folkl, who led Stanford with a career-high 20 points, stole and inbound pass and slipped in a layup with 14:17 remaining in the game, Stanford led, 64-35. When she grabbed a rebound and fired an outlet pass to Kate Starbird, who scored on a layup with 8:28 to go, it was 73-39.

“(Folkl) is some leaper,” Williams said. “I wanted to throw her an alley-oop pass myself, just to see her dunk.”

VanDerveer took Folkl--who made nine of 11 shots, had six rebounds, four assists, two steals, a block and no turnovers in 17 minutes--and her starters out of the game, but even the subs played the Anteaters even.

“We stayed with them for a while, and then a light bulb came on and they said, ‘These guys are the 15th-seeded team,’ ” said Allah-mi Basheer, who led Irvine with 19 points and seven rebounds.

It wasn’t a pretty ending, no matter how predictable. But it didn’t tarnish a shining season for the Anteaters.