Feb. 4, 2005
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Candice Wiggins had 20 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and a blocked shot, and No. 4 Stanford routed rival Arizona 91-74 on Thursday night for its 11th straight win.
Susan King Borchardt scored a season-high 17 points and Brooke Smith added 13 points and six rebounds in a rematch of last season's Pac-10 tournament championship game won by the Cardinal 51-46.
Stanford (20-2, 11-1 Pac-10) dominated from start to finish to extend its home winning streak to 18 games and win its 34th straight conference game in Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal haven't lost a Pac-10 home game since a 62-59 defeat against Southern California on March 1, 2001.
Arizona stars Shawntinice Polk and Dee-Dee Wheeler didn't start, a disciplinary measure by coach Joan Bonvicini for violating undisclosed team rules. Polk's violation occurred last weekend, while Wheeler did something earlier Thursday and was held out the entire first half.
Polk checked in at the 17:14 mark of the first half and finished with a team-high 20 points and 10 rebounds. Wheeler scored 11 points, but the Wildcats (15-7, 7-4) couldn't overcome their slow start. They have lost two in a row after having their four-game winning streak snapped Saturday in an overtime loss to Maryland.
Arizona and Stanford shared the Pac-10 regular-season title last season, but Stanford came into this meeting having won its last 10 games by an average of 21 points.
The Cardinal led by as many as 27 and beat the Wildcats for the ninth time in 11 meetings. Stanford ended Arizona's 34-game home winning streak - which at the time was the longest in the nation - with a 78-66 victory in Tucson last month.
Stanford jumped out to an 11-2 lead, with Borchardt scoring the first five points and Smith the next six. The Cardinal shot 53.6 percent in the first half on the way to a 46-24 lead at the break. They were outrebounded 24-13 but forced 18 turnovers.
Arizona committed 10 turnovers in the first six minutes and managed only four shots during that stretch because of its sloppy play.
Stanford's short-handed roster took another hit before the game. Freshman guard Cissy Pierce, a valuable player off the bench, cut her right hand during an afternoon shootaround. X-rays were negative, but she wore a temporary protective wrap and didn't play.
The Cardinal were down to nine scholarship players. They already were without Eziamaka Okafor and Jessica Elway. Okafor sustained a season-ending Achilles' tear at Washington on Thursday. Elway, the daughter of former NFL star John Elway, broke her right hand in practice Friday and had surgery Monday.
Shannon Hobson returned to the Wildcats' lineup after missing nearly a month with a sprained knee.