The Pac-10 Tournament final turned into the Candice Wiggins shooting clinic Monday night, as the star guard scored 30 points to lead the Cardinal to a 56-35 victory over Cal.

Wiggins, who was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year in a ceremony on Thursday, added another award to her impressive resume: the Pac-10 Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. She was joined on the All-Tournament team by freshman forward Kayla Pedersen and sophomore center Jayne Appel.

Against Cal, Wiggins played just 26 minutes, but it was more than enough time for her to dismantle the Bears’ defense. Her points came in a variety of ways: she hit five three-pointers, finished a number of tough layups and knocked down her jumpers from the field, including one particularly acrobatic shot that was easily the play of the game.

It came near the eight-minute mark in the first half. Wiggins was double-teamed inside the arc as time wound down on the shot clock. She leaped out from underneath the pressure and, as she fell both backwards and sideways, heaved up a jumper that swooshed right through the net.

A timeout was called shortly thereafter, but Cal’s fate was practically sealed: the Bears trailed by 15 and would never again come close to catching the Cardinal.

After play resumed, Stanford went on a 10-2 run that included two three-pointers from Wiggins to cement the victory. There were still 25 minutes left to play, but with a 31-8 lead and her star hitting nearly every shot, even the normally stoic Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer could only smile as her team ran away with the game, its third victory over Berkeley on the year.

Stanford leaned heavily on Wiggins, who was coming off of a poor shooting performance against UCLA in the semi-finals, to carry the team.

“I think Candice put this tournament on her back,” said VanDerveer. “She knew today was the day she needed to play well, and she got it going. She was just awesome.”

“My teammates have confidence in my shot. They know if I miss, I’ll start making them,” said Wiggins.

But, with the exception of Wiggins, the Cardinal’s offensive game was hardly a tour de force — Pedersen was the only Cardinal to join Wiggins in double figures, and just five players scored at all.

Instead, the game was won on defense: Stanford held Cal to just 6-for-31 shooting in the first half for a total of only 15 points, and, though the Bears shot better in the second period, they were still held to their lowest output of the season. The Cardinal’s margin of victory was the title game’s largest point discrepancy in its history.

“I was disappointed with the outcome of this game,” said Berkeley coach Joanne Boyle. “I was racking my brain trying to put us in a position to score, and it just didn’t happen.”

Stanford’s tenacious defense held Berkeley’s posts — Ashley Walker and Devanei Hampton, two of the Bears’ best players — to just seven points combined. Hampton shot only 2-of-15 from the field, and no Bear scored over six points.

There was, quite simply, no silver lining to this loss for Cal.

“We had a few different tactics we were looking to use against them. We never left Devanei alone. We constantly had two people coming, on the way, or there already,” said Appel.

“We didn’t make shots,” said Hampton. “I’m not going to stop shooting when my team needs me to shoot.”

VanDerveer credited sophomore guard Rosalyn Gold-Onwude with setting the defensive tone.

“Ros takes playing defense personally. She was on Alexis Gray-Lawson, who is a great player,” she said. “We didn’t want [Lauren] Greif, Kelsey Adrian or [Natasha] Vital to get hot outside, and they didn’t. I think it was excellent focus and pride in playing great defense.”

Stanford won the Pac-10 title for the second straight year, and the fifth time in the last seven. The Cardinal dominated in every game it played, outscoring opponents by an average of 25.7 points per game.

Most impressive, Stanford held all three of its opponents to under 20 points scoring in the first half, essentially ending each game before halftime.

But VanDerveer pointed to second-half let downs as one of the few flaws the Cardinal has to fix before the NCAA Tournament in two weeks.

“I saw a first-half tournament team. We need to throw knock-out punches in the second half. We need to keep the hammer down and not let a team come back,” she said.

The “hammer” will be needed against the country’s best in the NCAAs, but it was hardly needed against the rest of the Pac-10. Stanford triumphed over Oregon State 64-41 on Saturday before beating UCLA 78-45 on Sunday.

Appel led Stanford in its first two matches and was the favorite for the Most Outstanding Player award before the title game. She was perfect from the field (8-for-8) against the Beavers while posting a double double, and she led the Cardinal in scoring and blocks against the Bruins.

Although she didn’t have an impressive scoring output against the Bears (four points), she still pulled down 14 boards, blocked four shots and dished out five assists, all while holding Hampton in check for the entire game.

“There’s four or five top centers in the country, and Jayne’s one of them,” said Boyle.

Appel, Wiggins and their teammates will now have a two-week break before the NCAA Tournament starts on March 22. Stanford will host its first two rounds of play at Maples Pavilion.

But the team will hardly be resting before then, as VanDerveer and her staff will aim to perfect the squad.

“We need to play really, really well,” she said. “I’m very excited about our tournament win, but I do have some material to work with.”