Two days before its battle against No. 15 Arizona State, the No. 14 Stanford women’s basketball team warmed up against a lackluster Arizona squad and won easily, 82-51, last night.

Sophomore guard Candice Wiggins had a season-low 11 points against the Wildcats, but the rest of the Cardinal more than made up for it.

Stanford (12-4, 7-1 Pacific-10 Conference) led from the start with a 10-0 run, four and a half minutes in. The Wildcats never caught up as the Cardinal finished their first half ahead, 43-28, a gap that was never lessened in the second half.

With a comfortable lead, Stanford was able to have seven players log 19 or more minutes, and six scored nine or more points. Among those were, as usual, Wiggins, junior center Brooke Smith who had 20 points and senior guard Krista Rappahahn who had nine. Also stepping up, though, were freshmen Jillian Harmon with 13 and Rosalyn Gold-Onwude with nine.

“It’s always good for us to be able to play our bench and get valuable minutes for people,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We had some real good opportunities, and I think people will benefit from the playing time they got.”

The wide variety of contributions for the night was a welcome change for the Cardinal, who have been relying on Wiggins, Smith and Rappahahn to score big and take the lead the past few games. The trio accounted for 73 of 85 points against California on Sunday and 62 of 76 against Oregon the week prior, but only 40 of 82 last night.

Making her first big contribution since returning from an injury was junior forward Kristen Newlin, who missed eight games after a stress reaction in her left femur. She came back Sunday, started against Cal and garnered six points during 15 minutes. Another 15 minutes and nine points last night showed the Cardinal that their post is ready to be a presence on the court again. Newlin said she feels better each day and felt no pain in the game against the Wildcats.

“Kristen being back really gives us a whole new ability to go inside and be bigger, stronger and more physical, and we have a lot of different options with that,” VanDerveer said. “The first game back I think she was pressing a little bit, but this game she looked relaxed and was finishing really well inside.”

Newlin adds much to the Cardinal lineup, giving Smith help in the post and allowing her more in-game rest.

But among the team as a whole, energy has been a problem. Sunday’s victory over Cal, although secured with a 12-point margin, exemplified this as Stanford came out less enthusiastic than normal. With increasing contributions from more players, however, the Cardinal anticipate a more rounded team, which is more even in energy output.

“We want to have, I’d say, at least a seven-player but more like an eight-player rotation to keep people fresh,” VanDerveer said.

Absent from last night’s rotation was sophomore guard Cissy Pierce. Pierce missed a practice this week and was suspended from last night’s game as well as Saturday’s.

Wiggins looks to make a comeback on Saturday against Arizona State after a disappointing 11-point evening following 37 points at Oregon and 33 against Cal.

“She’s extremely competitive, and I think this will motivate her,” VanDerveer said. “I wouldn’t want to guard her on Saturday — I wouldn’t ever want to guard her anyway. I think she will compete at a higher level. She likes to score; she likes to make things happen. She won’t get down on herself, and she won’t second guess; she’ll just come out and play harder.”