STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - Candice Wiggins walked to center court with her family, embraced coach Tara VanDerveer and smiled during a loud ovation and a video tribute highlighting her brilliant career.
Wiggins isn't ready for any retrospectives just yet, knowing there's so much more she wants to accomplish in the next few weeks - the Pac-10 scoring record, another conference title and a trip to her first Final Four.
Wiggins moved closer to all those goals in her final regular season game at Maples Pavilion, scoring 23 points to move into second-place on the Pac-10 career scoring list and lead No. 6 Stanford to a 79-57 victory over Arizona State on Saturday.
"It's an emotional game because it's the last regular season game. That's it for me," Wiggins said. "But like Tara said, we still have plenty more games to go, so I'm not concerned about that."
The 12th straight win for the Cardinal (24-3, 13-2) sets up next weekend's showdown for first place at Haas Pavilion against rival California. The Cardinal, who have won seven straight Pac-10 regular season titles, trail the Golden Bears by one game with three games remaining. But by beating Cal at home last month, Stanford could be in control of the race with a win next Saturday.
Wiggins received a prolonged ovation during pregame introductions and was also honored along with fellow senior Cissy Pierce in a postgame ceremony. This most assuredly won't be Wiggins' last game at Maples because Stanford will host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament next month.
By then, Wiggins will likely be the top scorer in Pac-10 history. Her free throw 1:44 into the second half moved her past Oregon State's Tonja Kostic (2,349 points) into second place on the conference's career scoring list. Wiggins finished the game with 2,365 career points, 50 away from breaking Lisa Leslie's record of 2,414.
"What can I say about Candice," VanDerveer said. "Every game she comes out and puts our team on her back and does whatever our team needs her to do, whether it's play the 1, play defense, rebound. She's just a fabulous player and just a pleasure to coach every day."
Wiggins added a 3-pointer during a 12-0 run that broke open a four-point game early in the second half. The Cardinal held Arizona State scoreless for more than 6 minutes during the spurt and led by double-digits the rest of the way.
"I just know that I am giving her the best graduation present of anybody. I'm so happy she's graduating," ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne said. "She's just a tremendous player. She's certainly one of the all-time greats not just in the Pac-10 but ever to play college basketball."
Wiggins had plenty of help this game. Rosalyn Gold-Onwude set career-highs with 17 points and five 3-pointers, Jayne Appel added 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists. JJ Hones scored 11 points, making three of Stanford's 11 3-pointers in VanDerveer's 900th game as a college coach.
"I said to Jayne, 'I'm sure glad you're not a senior,"' VanDerveer said. "She gives us a great presence inside. She has assists, she scores, she rebounds and she has matured incredibly not just from last year but during this year. ... We need Jayne out there and she's been playing extremely well."
Dymond Simon scored 13 points, Lauren Lacey added 11 and Sybil Dosty had 10 for the Sun Devils (16-9, 10-4), who fell to 0-8 against ranked teams this season with its 25th consecutive loss at Maples.
This was Stanford's largest margin of victory over Arizona State since a 92-64 victory in 2001.