Despite owning a five-game winning streak, the Stanford women’s basketball team has a pair of games still hanging over its collective head. In its only back-to-back losses of the season, the Cardinal dropped away games to UCLA and USC on the first weekend of the New Year. Tonight, No. 7 Stanford (17-3, 7-2 Pac-10) gets its first shot at revenge, when it hosts the Women of Troy (13-7, 6-3 Pac-10) at 7 p.m.

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Alex Oppenheimer

Jeanette Pohlen and her Stanford teammates will look to exact a measure of revenge against USC tonight after a loss in Los Angeles previously this season.

Stanford has yet to lose at Maples Pavilion this season and is ready to kick off the second half of its Pac-10 schedule with a statement win. As a result of those losses in Los Angeles four weeks ago, the Cardinal fell behind in the race for the conference championship. However, the team has since to within one game of conference-leading No. 8 California, aided by a convincing 72-52 win over the Golden Bears last Saturday.

Freshman Kayla Pedersen said that the team remains cautiously optimistic about their conference standings.

“We are taking each game one at a time and not looking ahead because every game counts for the PAC-10 title,” she said.

In the last meeting between the Cardinal and the Trojans, the teams stayed close throughout the game; neither squad led by more than six points. Despite holding a 71-66 lead with 2:11 left, the Cardinal fell to the Trojans in a tight 73-72 contest. Normally reliable senior guard Candice Wiggins had a tough day from the field, going only 5-for-15 from the floor.

Pedersen attributed the Women of Troy’s success in the first meeting to their production from long range.

“For [our last encounter with] USC, I think that they hit a lot threes and that really hurt us,” Pedersen recalled.

Luckily, the gritty senior has since bounced back, adding at least 18 points in each of the Cardinal’s last four games. Overall, Wiggins averages 18.1 points per game this season and she now sits within 11 points of Stanford’s career scoring record, a mark she is expected to pass tonight.

The Women of Troy are coming off of a sweep of the Oregon schools, and the Cardinal bigs will have to find an answer for junior Nadia Parker, who leads the team with 11.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

Sophomore center Jayne Appel and freshman forward Kayla Pedersen, who together average more than 27 points a game, will look to handle USC double teams with the same ease they had against Cal, dominating the boards and finding open teammates for the kick out. With the help of sophomore guard J.J. Hones, who scored 12 points from behind the arc against the Golden Bears, Stanford hit nine three-pointers and the Cardinal will look to continue that success from three point range.

Hones and the backcourt will also be responsible for Hailey Dunham, who netted eight points and eight rebounds in the Trojans’ comeback win over Oregon last week. She and redshirt junior Brynn Cameron, a long-range specialist, will offer additional options for USC.

Pedersen, though, noted that the key to Stanford’s success in the Cal match up was a tough mental attitude. The team will focus on mimicking those positives, instead of dwelling on the problems in the Los Angeles defeats.

“We hope to take away [USC’s] strengths and capitalize on ours,” she said. “If we play our game and take the mentality we had against Cal into these next games, I am confident that we will have a positive outcome.”

With a lot at stake for both teams in terms of conference standings, the Maples Pavilion crowd should heat up quickly. Stanford’s earlier leave no room for error, and the Cardinal knows it simply can not afford to let another opportunity slip by.

“I believe that our team is very motivated for this next game especially because we feel like we have more to prove after those losses,” Pedersen said. “This game is our second chance and we don’t want to disappoint especially when we are at home.”