After tonight, the Pacific-10 Conference might consider renaming the tournament final “The Candice Wiggins Show.”

“Candice gives everything she can give,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She’s the most competitive person in the room. She’s phenomenal.”

The Pac-10 Tournament's Most Outstanding Player virtually redefined “phenomenal” on the court, doing it all for No. 6 Stanford as the Cardinal defeated No. 8 Arizona State 62-55 in tonight's championship. Wiggins scored 20 points to lead all players with her usual array of driving lay-ups, jump shots and three-pointers. But she sealed Stanford’s victory with two plays at the other end of the court with less than a half a minute left.

With the Cardinal (28-4) offense having gone silent, Arizona State’s Briann January had hit a three-pointer and six foul shots as the Sun Devils (28-4) came from 16 points down with 6:14 remaining to within three at the 36-second mark. After two Brooke Smith free throws for Stanford rebuilt the lead to five, ASU guard Reagan Pariseau pulled up in the corner to launch a three-pointer that could have brought the Sun Devils within two. But the ball was barely out of Pariseau’s hands before Wiggins came flying across the court to swat the ball out of bounds with 25 seconds left.

It was the last meaningful scoring chance that Arizona State would have. Ten seconds later Wiggins intercepted an ASU pass and fired a pinpoint pass to senior forward Brooke Smith, who drew the foul and sank both shots from the line to ice the game.

“Brooke made her free throws, Candice had the big steal and a block, and we won the big trophy,” VanDerveer said in understated summary.

Freshman center Jayne Appel was also sensational for the Cardinal, scoring 17 points and pulling down 15 rebounds for her fifth career double-double. Appel was named to the All-Tournament team along, with senior forward Brooke Smith, who had 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists in the final.

The Cardinal stars’ performances were all the more impressive given that Wiggins was in her first weekend back after re-aggravating a hamstring injury and Appel was coming off perhaps her worst game of the season after fouling out in the semifinal against USC. Eight of Appel’s rebounds were on the offensive end, and she did it without incurring the officials’ ire until late in the second half.

Five of those offensive rebounds led directly to Stanford baskets.

“I knew I couldn’t afford to foul out,” Appel said. “I just told myself I’d get no fouls in the first half.”

After trading baskets for much of the second half, Stanford blitzed its opponents for the last seven minutes of the first half after an ASU jumper cut the Cardinal lead to three at 20-17. Wiggins scored four points sandwiched between a quartet of Appel lay-ups as Stanford closed out the first half on a 14-2 run, while the Sun Devils missed their last nine shots of the period. ASU ended up shooting only 8-for-29 (27.6 percent) from the field in the first half.

Stanford cruised along, more or less maintaining that 17-point halftime lead for most of the second half until Arizona State began its late run.

“It was exactly what we thought it was going to be,” VanDerveer said. “A battle.”

Wiggins and Appel were supplemented by a robust Stanford defense throughout the game. The Sun Devils’ leading scorer, All-Tournament forward Emily Westerberg, was held scoreless until she hit a pair of free throws at the end of the first period. Smith, Appel and senior center Kristen Newlin knocked away a number of passes to Westerberg and sealed her off from the basket whenever she managed to get the ball.

The Cardinal also used its significant size advantage to out-rebound the Sun Devils by a remarkable 13 boards. VanDerveer played her big lineup with Appel, Smith and Newlin all on the floor for long segments of the game, and ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne identified their contribution on the glass as the tipping point of the game.

“Rebounding wins championships, and we didn’t rebound well enough,” Thorne said.

Newlin contributed nine rebounds for the Cardinal.

The size advantage played out in another way as well. As often happens in the postseason, the referees at HP Pavilion put away their whistles for large parts of the game, and the Cardinal’s size helped it withstand the more physical play that ensued.

“They stop calling as much [at this time of year],” Smith said. “You just have to battle and play through it.”

This is Stanford’s fourth Pac-10 tournament championship in the last five years. The Cardinal was upset by UCLA in the 2006 edition, and Smith said that the team was eager to go into the NCAA Tournament on a more positive note this time around.

“We wanted to build momentum going into NCAAs,” Smith said. “This is the most important time to be playing well.”