Nov. 21, 2004
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer told her team that playing time will hinge on playing defense. At this rate, she's going to be using a lot of people.
Stanford allowed its third-lowest points total ever and Candace Wiggins scored 15 points in the Cardinal's 82-26 victory over Pacific on Sunday.
"We worked very hard defensively," VanDerveer said. "We're doing some new things and we're doing them really well."
Stanford had 18 steals - five from freshman Cissy Pierce - and forced 27 turnovers overall.
"The biggest thing is our aggressiveness," Wiggins said. "We have a goal sheet every day and aggressiveness is always on top."
Thirteen players scored for Stanford (2-0), which beat Pacific by 61 points last year and has won six straight against the Tigers.
Stanford, playing in Santa Clara while its campus court is under construction, played without fifth-year senior guard Susan King Borchardt, who has a stress fracture in her left foot.
No one scored more than five points for Pacific (1-1).
"We're a young team and this is a lesson we must learn," Pacific coach Craig Jackson said. "They were just so much more physical than we were. For us it's about getting better."
The Cardinal held Pacific scoreless for a stretch of 7:40 during the second half and built a 57-11 advantage.
"The good thing about our team is we have an all-around game," Wiggins said. "You can try to close one thing but it's not just one thing we are doing. We kind of do everything."
Pacific went the final 11:22 of the first half without a field goal, missing 14 consecutive shots. The Tigers made just 3 of 20 shots before halftime and trailed 36-7 at the break.