In four of the past five years, the Stanford women’s basketball team got to the regional finals, but the promised land of the Final Four has been just out of reach. Two years ago, LSU crushed the Cardinal’s hopes in the final minute. The year before that, Michigan State eked out a nail-biter over Stanford.

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Senior Candice Wiggins stole the show during yesterday’s Spokane Regional Final, scoring 41 points in the Cardinal’s 98-87 victory over No. 1 seed Maryland.

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Freshman forward Kayla Pedersen (left) and sophomore post Jayne Appel harassed Maryland’s Chrystal Langhorne during Monday’s victory over the Terrapins. Stanford will now face the winner of tomorrow’s Texas A&M/Tennesee game.

In 2008, Candice Wiggins and the Cardinal left no doubt, pulling away from one-seed Maryland in the middle of the game and coasting through to the final buzzer to a 98-87 victory. It marked the Cardinal’s first Final Four appearance since 1997.

“What can I say about Candice,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said after the game. “She is a great player, steps up in big games, and she really stepped up for our team.”

Wiggins, the Spokane Regional MVP, scored 41 points in the game to lead all players. Sophomore guard JJ Hones and freshman forward Kayla Pedersen put in superb performances for Stanford, as well. Hones hit four three-pointers en route to scoring 23 points, a career-high; Pedersen chipped in 15 points and 7 assists while playing all 40 minutes alongside Wiggins and Hones.

The Cardinal (34-3) and the Terrapins (33-4) both opened up hot, hitting virtually everything on the way to making it a 10-9 Maryland game by the first TV timeout four minutes in. Stanford threatened to pull away several times in the first half, but in each instance was reined in by the Terrapins, who shot 54.1 percent on the game.

Stanford offset Maryland’s hot shooting with some pinpoint accuracy of its own, hitting an eye-popping 14-for-28 from three-point range. After the Terrapins caught up with a Stanford run yet again, closing to within three at 41-38 with just over two minutes to go in the first half, the Cardinal used two of those three-pointers — a rare bomb from Pedersen, who was 3-for-3 from long distance, and a trey from Hones — to put Maryland in the rear-view mirror, 51-41, at the half.

“I know that they shot well,” VanDerveer said, “but we were shooting really well from three. We were getting some good shots, and they were really working hard for their shots.”

The Terps closed the gap to just 6 points early in the second period, as Kristy Tolliver — who hit Maryland’s famous game-tying three-pointer in the national championship two years ago — had a layup and a three within the first five minutes. But even Tolliver, who led Maryland with 35 points, was powerless to stop the three-headed monster that has driven the Cardinal’s offense all year long.

Stanford scored on five of its next seven possessions, including a layup and a three-point play from Pedersen, a three from Wiggins and two baskets from sophomore center Jayne Appel, who finished with 11 points and 9 rebounds.

This put Stanford ahead 69-56, as Maryland missed a flurry of layups and short jump shots under pressure from Appel and Pedersen. Wiggins tacked four more points on with 11 minutes to go, and the Cardinal led by as much as 17 with the half winding down.

“Tara looked at me [during a timeout] and said, whenever you get a shot, just take it,” a bubbling Wiggins said in the post-game press conference.

Maryland may have made a few Stanford fans nervous with a run that brought the Terps within 7 points with six minutes left, but Wiggins answered Tolliver’s three with a three of her own to give Stanford a double-digit cushion, and Hones hit a three-pointer and a layup to preserve the margin and send Maryland into fouling mode.

Stanford will play UConn-Rutgers winner. Stanford beat Rutgers 60-58 in Pistcataway, N.J. earlier this season and lost to UConn 66-54 at the Paradise Jam tournament in the Virgin Islands.