CANDICE VS. CANDACE

TAMPA, Fla. -- Stanford plans to force Tennessee standout Candace Parker to play with her left hand in tonight’s NCAA championship game.

Up until this point of her college career, everything has always gone right.

As in, she could do no wrong, because she can score with either hand, from up close or from outside, and has the awards to prove it. But an injured left shoulder has thrown a curve at the 6-foot-4 redshirt junior and given the Cardinal at least some kind of idea on how to defend her.

“As long as we can stay physical with her and make her use that left hand, then I think she’ll miss more shots than usual,” said Stanford freshman forward Kayla Pedersen, who is expected to be the primary defender on Parker.

Parker laughed when told of the strategy.

“Glad I got some insight into what they’re planning on doing,” she said. “I’m just going to continue to try to play my game and, obviously, if I step on the court, then all’s fair.”

Trying to stay with Parker has been unfair for opponents.

After redshirting her first year because of a knee injury, she became the first woman to score on a dunk in the NCAA tournament. As a redshirt sophomore, she earned the 2007 Wade Trophy, becoming the youngest woman to be named the nation’s top player.

The honors continued to roll in this season, and she seemed to be hitting her stride when she tied her career high with 34 points in a Sweet 16 victory over Notre Dame.

Then came the first half against Texas A&M.;

After scoring 18 of her team’s first 27 points, she twice injured her shoulder in the final five minutes of the half, keeping her out through the first 10 minutes of the second half.

She returned to score eight of her 26 points, helping the Lady Vols to a 53-45 victory to advance to their 18th Final Four.

Parker, whose brother is NBA player Anthony Parker, literally braced herself for Sunday’s semifinal against Louisiana State. Wearing a protective harness under her long-sleeve shirt, she missed 21 of 27 shots and scored only 13 points, but her court sense made the difference in the closing seconds of the 47-46 victory.

Trailing by one with 7.1 seconds left, she dribbled the ball up the court, drew a double team and dished off to Nicky Anosike, who missed the layup, but Alexis Hornbuckle was in position to put back the offensive rebound with 0.7 of a second remaining.

“I’m happy my team still had confidence in me in this game, shooting as poorly as I did,” Parker said. “I knew I wanted to just come down and create, whether it was a shot or a pass.”

Sitting in the stands were the Stanford players and coaches, who had the luxury of already having won their semifinal. They too could sense Parker wasn’t the same player who scored 25 points against them in December, when the Cardinal won in overtime on its home court.

“It looked like she was shooting short on all her left-handed shots,” said Pedersen, who was burdened with foul trouble in the previous game against Tennessee. “We’ll use that to our advantage.”

Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt is sure Parker can deal with it.

“I don’t think that’s a problem as far as taking the ball off the dribble,” Summitt said. “Will she shoot the ball left-handed? Probably not. But with her size, and obviously she’s going against size, I think she can make shots either way.”

That’s how Tennessee will know Parker is headed right.

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dan.arritt@latimes.com