The women’s basketball team completed its regular season on the road this weekend, as it traveled north to face Washington and Washington State. The Cardinal downed the Huskies on Friday and the Cougars yesterday. The victories, along with California’s loss on Sunday, gave Stanford the Pacific-10 Conference championship outright. It is Stanford’s eighth straight regular season title.

The Cardinal began the series against Washington in Seattle, and for the first half of the game, the Huskies went basket-for-basket with Stanford. Washington trailed by just two at halftime and the lead changed 10 times in the half.

“We played the No. 7 team in the country to two points in the first half — that’s phenomenal,” said Washington coach Tia Jackson.

The Huskies didn’t shoot particularly well, draining only 35.9 percent of their shots from the field, while the Cardinal shot 53.3 percent.

But Washington succeeded because it was able to control the glass — the Huskies out-rebounded Stanford 24-13 in the first half, with the majority (14) of their boards coming on offense. As a result, they attempted nine more field goals and five more free throws than Stanford.

“Our defense was pretty good, but we gave them too many shots,” said head coach Tara VanDerveer.

The Cardinal’s struggles were surprising, since Stanford is one of the best rebounding teams in the conference. And VanDerveer’s halftime message to her team was clear.

“I think you can probably guess it,” she said after the game. “It started with an ‘R’ and ended with a ‘D’, with seven letters in there.”

The Cardinal responded by pulling down two more boards than the Huskies in the second half, although Washington still had more rebounds overall.

It wasn’t necessarily rebounding, but timely shooting that led Stanford to victory. The Cardinal began the half on a 12-0 run, holding Washington without a basket for nearly six minutes. After that, the lead was never threatened — Stanford pushed its advantage to 25 points, and won by a final score of 73-53.

“We didn’t come out in the second half the way we wanted to,” said Washington guard Emily Florence. “You can’t get down with a team like that. They won’t let you come back.”

Senior guard Candice Wiggins and sophomore guard J.J. Hones led Stanford with 22 and 16 points, respectively. Hones shot 6-for-9 overall and 4-for-6 from three-point range.

“I was left open, and so I tried to take a shot because that’s what the team needed,” said Hones.

“The guards led the way for us, which is what it’s going to take down the stretch,” said VanDerveer. But, she added, “we need guards rebounding more.”

She pointed specifically to the success of Florence who, despite being one of the smallest players in the conference (at 5’5), is the ninth-best rebounder in the Pac-10.

Still, it was Wiggins who led the Cardinal on the boards, as she notched a double-double with 10 rebounds. Sophomore center Jayne Appel and freshman forward Kayla Pedersen — who both scored in double figures — had uncharacteristic off-nights on the glass.

But the post players’ stingy defense made up for it: Appel had three blocks, and junior reserve forward/center Morgan Clyburn led all players with a career-high four rejections.

Washington center Andrea Plouffe was the only Husky to reach double figures (11 points), and even she was held to a single basket in the second period.

“Our team really focused in the second half,” said VanDerveer.

That intensity carried over to Sunday’s game in Pullman against the Cougars, the Pac-10 bottom-dwellers.

Stanford has never lost to Washington State, and in their previous meeting, the Cardinal blew out the Cougars 105-47 in their first game of Pac-10 play. Yesterday’s match didn’t approach those numbers, but Stanford was dominant from the start in a 74-52 win.

The Cardinal jumped out to a 14-4 lead about five minutes into the contest, and its lead was never seriously challenged from that point on.

Stanford outplayed Washington State in every possible way: they shot effectively, rebounded well and held the Cougar offense in check throughout the game.

The Cardinal attack relied on three-point shooting — Stanford shot a remarkable 50 percent from three-point range. In their last regular season games, seniors Cissy Pierce and Wiggins were a combined 7-of-10 from behind the arc.

Wiggins was the only Cardinal to reach double-digits in points, two of which gave her the Pac-10 career scoring record, which had stood for nearly 14 years.

Cougar guard Katie Appleton, who led WSU with 17 points, said, “Stanford did a good job of exploiting some of our weaknesses.”

Washington State coach June Daugherty felt that her team was able to play with Stanford through much of the first half, and indeed, they did: unlike in their first meeting, the Cougars never let Stanford completely run away with the game.

But Daugherty and her squad were dealt a massive blow toward the end of the first half when forward Heather Molzen, one of the Cougars’ best players, fell backwards into Appel when the two were fighting for a rebound. Their limbs became tangled, and Molzen’s elbow slammed into the floor. She left the game and did not return — Daugherty said she had severe swelling and, after the contest, Molzen was seen in a sling.

“It really hurt us when she went off the floor,” Daugherty said. “You saw us give up the baskets to start the second half, and I don’t think that would have happened if Heather had been out there.”

Molzen’s injury essentially ended any chance the Cougars had of pulling off an upset.

With the game in hand, VanDerveer was able to give her reserves increased minutes.

“I was excited about the play of our bench,” she said. “We had Morgan playing the minutes that she played. We got [freshman] Ashley Cimino in there to play some major minutes and make some nice plays. [Freshman] Jeanette Pohlen had a really great weekend.

“We haven’t really played a deep rotation, but we were able to do that and rest some people going into the Pac-10 [Tournament] and also get people some more confidence.”

The Pac-10 Tournament will be held next weekend in San Jose. Stanford will be the top seed and will play Saturday against the winner of a play-in game between Oregon State and Arizona.

VanDerveer does not foresee any massive changes to the Cardinal’s game plan for the tournament.

“I think the adjustments we’re going to make are going to be subtle,” she said.

The team is awaiting the return of junior forward Jillian Harmon, a regular starter who is one of the team’s best rebounders and scorers. She has missed over a month with an injury. Harmon traveled with the team to Washington, but did not play.

VanDerveer said that she might not play Harmon in the early rounds of the Pac-10 because she wants her to be at full strength for the NCAA tournament.

It’s one of only a few predicaments for the Hall of Fame coach: her team is peaking, and Pac-10 and NCAA tournament glory are within their grasp.