Stanford Women Dominate USC

Two teams entered Maples Pavilion on Saturday tied for the Pacific 10 Conference lead. Only one would have that distinction after the game.

With the conference race at its halfway point, once again everyone else is chasing Stanford. The fifth-ranked Cardinal made that clear with a resounding victory over USC, 94-58, before 5,930.

It was the second consecutive lopsided win for Stanford (17-2, 8-1), which overpowered UCLA, 100-75, on Thursday. And, like Thursday, the Cardinal seemingly couldn’t miss. It shot 70.4% in the first half and built a 54-27 lead. It finished with a season-high 63%.

Freshman guard Candice Wiggins had 23 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes for Stanford and continued to make a case for All-American consideration. Reserve center Kristen Newlin added 14 points and guards Kelley Suminski and Susan Borchardt each had 10.

“I feel this was a breakout weekend for us,” said Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer. “I was pleased by our hustle and aggressiveness.... I was very pleased with our starters, but I was also excited about how many people we could bring into the game and see them all contribute.”

The unranked Trojans (13-5, 7-2) might take some solace in having second place in the conference all to themselves. They remain the surprise team of the first half.

But they also saw how far away, for now, they are from first place.

“That’s a well-meshed machine over there,” USC Coach Mark Trakh said of the Cardinal.

“They’d be very good at home, away, on the blacktop outside. They’re going to be good anywhere. We’ve played Notre Dame and DePaul, but [Stanford is] the best team we’ve played all year. It’s not even close.”

If the Trojans were going to have a shot at the upset, they were going to have to make shots from the outset.

But USC missed its first 10 attempts from the field (0 for 4 from three-point range) and were already down 12-0 before Allison Jaskowiak got them on the board with a free throw.

If the Trojans, who shot 33.3%, could have stayed within 10-12 points by halftime, they could have geared to make a second-half run at Stanford.

But the Cardinal blistered USC with a 31-9 run over the final seven minutes of the first half.

“Our run never came,” Trakh said.

The second half was, more or less, a scrimmage. Stanford led by as many as 40 points, and VanDerveer cleared the bench with just over seven minutes to play.

Eshaya Murphy led the Trojans with 11 points.