The No. 2 Cardinal women’s basketball team added some security to its lead in the conference standings last night, dominating USC by a score of 77-39. Despite some early troubles, Stanford took control of the game near the end of the first half and had four players with double-digit point totals, led by junior forward Kayla Pedersen’s 18.

Things got off to a slow start, with both teams struggling to find the basket in the game’s opening minutes. The Trojans (13-9, 7-4 Pac-10) were 1-6 from the field until redshirt sophomore guard Stefanie Gilbreath stole a ball at half court and broke away for a layup to make it 4-2 at 16:05. Stanford (21-1, 11-0) had a hard time as well, going 1-10 from the field until senior center Jayne Appel knocked down a shot from the top of the key, a somewhat unusual place for the six-foot-four center to square up. With the basket, the score was tied at just 4-4 after five minutes of play.

The Cardinal then went on a brief run, including a fast break layup by redshirt senior guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude to make it 8-4 at 13:38. Pedersen followed that with a nothing-but-net three-pointer from straight out, electrifying the crowd and forcing USC to use its first timeout.

After going up 11-4 on the small outburst, though, the Cardinal continued to struggle with its shooting accuracy. Stanford’s shooting percentage sunk as low as 29 percent midway through the half, while the Trojans finished at just 9.7 percent, making only three field goals.

“I think we were just not as patient as we needed to be,” said Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer. “We wanted to win this game very badly … and I just felt people were pressing a little bit, missing free throws that we’ve been making, missing O-boards and making some turnovers that are uncharacteristic.”

USC head coach Michael Cooper, watching his team struggle even more severely, had similar thoughts.

“I don’t really think Stanford’s defense was a big issue to us, we just missed a lot of wide open shots,” Cooper said. “When you’re playing the second-best team in the country, you’ve got to hit your shots.”

The poor shooting meant plenty of opportunities for rebounding, however, and the Cardinal was able to capitalize. Pedersen, in particular, was raking in rebounds, picking up 10 in less than 11 minutes. She finished with 14 of her team’s eventual 59 rebounds. Appel, meanwhile, picked up enough boards to pass Nicole Powell’s mark of 1,143 to become Stanford’s all-time rebounds leader.

“I think it’s an honor to be up there,” Appel said. “But I want a national championship.”

Stanford went on another short burst before halftime, going 3-4 from the field as Pedersen sunk a three from straight out and followed it up with a pair of successful free throws, which helped send the Cardinal to the locker room with a 29-10 lead. Pedersen earned a double-double with 50 seconds remaining in the half.

Stanford took off in the second half, improving its accuracy and quickly extending its lead. Two and a half minutes in, Gold-Onwude scored a crowd-pleasing fast break layup that drew a foul, putting the Cardinal up 34-10 with the and-one free throw. That came in the midst of a 26-9 run that lasted until 10:07 of the half, when Stanford led 55-19.

As the half continued, Stanford began to make better shots, posting 64.5-percent accuracy in the second half after shooting 35.7 percent in the first. After the ten-minute mark, Stanford relied less on driving to the basket and made 14 of its next 16 points from the field on jump-shots.

With about five minutes remaining and the win looking secure, VanDerveer began to sub in her bench players. By that time, though, four of Stanford’s starters had double-digit point totals: Pedersen (18), Ogwumike (16), Appel (15), and Gold-Onwude (11).

As USC continued to fade, one of its players — redshirt junior Jacki Gemelos — did not. The Stockton, Calif. native, a high school teammate of Appel, had been plagued by knee injuries since being the nation’s top recruit in 2006. She played her first NCAA game only three nights ago, against Cal, and was her team’s points leader against the Cardinal with 13.

“I thought Jacki Gemelos played an excellent game for her second game back,” Cooper said. “Other than the loss, it’s just a very happy moment for me personally, and I’m quite sure for her family, that she’s out on the court doing the things she loves doing.”

“It’s definitely been bittersweet,” Gemelos said. “It’s unfortunate that we came down and got two losses, but at the same time I’m very happy
[to be back].”

While Gemelos’s fellow Trojans and her friends and family were certainly delighted to see her playing again, the Cardinal had a special source of inspiration as well. Stanford’s 1989-1990 national championship team, coached by VanDerveer, was honored following Sunday’s game and was on campus this weekend to speak with the current Cardinal women.

“There are some teams that say, ‘Oh, that was 20 years ago, that was then,’ but I really like how our team really embraced their message and listened,” VanDerveer said. “Obviously our teams are really different, but there are a lot of similarities with what we’re doing now and what we did and what things will work for us. The biggest thing that this team felt was just the pride that the ‘90 team has in them.”

With two wins over the Los Angeles schools last weekend, the Cardinal has secured a season sweep over the conference’s second- and third-place teams, owning a three-game cushion in the loss column over the Bruins with only seven regular season games remaining. Up next for the Cardinal is a road trip to the Northwest, where it will take on Washington on Friday at 7 p.m. and Washington State on Sunday at noon.