The No. 6 women’s basketball team may still be a game behind the top team in the Pac-10, but the Cardinal made a huge statement this weekend with a blowout win of Arizona State on Saturday, reasserting its dominance in the Pac-10.

After Stanford fell to UCLA and USC on its trip to Southern California in January, the talk buzzing around the conference was that parity was king in the Pac-10 this year. California, UCLA and USC all looked to be on the rise, while Stanford looked as though it had taken a step back, despite non-conference wins over national powers Rutgers and Tennessee.

Fast-forward a month and a half, and despite California’s one-game lead over the Cardinal at the top of the standings, it is painfully obvious to the other nine Pac-10 teams that Stanford is still the class of the conference.

The message that Stanford sent in its 22-point victory over ASU — the Sun Devils’ steepest defeat since an 81-55 beatdown from Connecticut in 2003 — was the culmination of the run the Cardinal started against California on Jan. 26. That game was billed as “The Battle of the Bay” — perhaps the first time Cal had come into a game on equal footing with Stanford.

Instead, the Bears got crushed, 72-52, by a Stanford team on a mission. Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said on Saturday that ever since the two losses to UCLA and USC, Stanford has been playing as though each game was an elimination game — one loss would essentially eliminate the team from contention for the regular season title.

That mentality is clearly paying off for the Cardinal after absolutely steamrolling its second rival in three weeks. Stanford gets another chance against California in Berkeley this weekend; do not expect the Cardinal to let off the gas for even one instant. This team wants to trump its last statement game every time it steps on the court.