Wiggins lifts Stanford to final

TAMPA, Fla. -- Candice Wiggins put her name in the record books with her scoring ability this season. She lifted the Stanford women’s basketball team into the NCAA finals by excelling across the board.

Wiggins scored a team-high 25 points Sunday afternoon against top-seeded Connecticut, but it was also her rebounding and ballhandling abilities that made the difference in the 82-73 victory at the St. Pete Times Forum, sending the second-seeded Cardinal to its first NCAA championship game since 1992. Wiggins, a senior guard who was the all-time leading scorer in the Pacific 10 Conference this season, and became the first women to score 40 or more points twice in the same NCAA tournament, contributed a team-high 13 rebounds and handed out five assists.

“The thing that’s driving this team is the fact we don’t want to stop playing with each other,” Wiggins said. “We don’t want the season to end.”

The Cardinal (35-3) avenged a 66-54 loss to Connecticut on Thanksgiving night at a tournament in the Virgin Islands. Since then, the Huskies have lost two starting guards to season-ending knee injuries but finished strong enough to enter the tournament as the overall top-seeded team.

Stanford also claimed to be a changed group, overhauling its offensive system and remaining focused, even after losing consecutive games in early January to UCLA and USC in Los Angeles. The Cardinal hasn’t lost since, increasing its winning streak to 23 games with Sunday’s win.

“We knew we were still a good team,” Wiggins said. “We just had two bad games and I think that’s the best thing that happened to us too.”

Connecticut (36-2) led only once in the game, 3-2, on a three-pointer by Ketia Swanier. Wiggins followed with a pull-up jumper on the next possession and Stanford began to slowly pull away, taking a 40-33 lead into the half.

After the Huskies cut the deficit to 47-46 with 14:09 remaining in the game, Wiggins answered with back-to-back three-point baskets to give the Cardinal some breathing room.

Kayla Pedersen, a freshman forward who finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, then scored off a nice interior pass from another freshman, Jeanette Pohlen, a former Brea Olinda standout, pushing the lead to 55-46 with 11:45 left.

Connecticut didn’t go quietly, cutting the deficit to 71-66 with 2:48 remaining, but Pedersen sank her only three-point basket on Stanford’s next possession to extend the lead back to eight and the Huskies didn’t get any closer.

Pedersen, the Pac-10 freshman of the year, nearly out-played Connecticut freshman forward Maya Moore, an Associated Press first-team All-American who finished with 20 points and nine rebounds.

“Kayla is not a freshman, she hasn’t played like that since the first game she played in a Stanford uniform,” Wiggins said. “It gives us so much confidence as teammates to look at Kayla and know that every single game she’s going to go her hardest.”

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dan.arritt@latimes.com