For the Stanford women’s basketball team, winning is a custom, and winning big is not uncommon either.
The Cardinal faced the Oregon schools in Stanford over the weekend, where they easily breezed through with two victories. And as Stanford won both games by a combined total of 56 points, the question still remains: Can any team win at Maples Pavilion?
For an opposing Pacific-10 Conference team, walking into Maples is like walking into a death trap. Oregon women’s basketball head coach Bev Smith described it as a “house of horrors.”
Even though the arena seats just 7,391 — smallest in Pac-10 — Stanford has won 23-straight games, dating back to Dec. 28, 2001. The Cardinal home-winning streak is second in the nation behind Connecticut, as the Huskies have 57-straight home victories.
Stanford (19-2, 11-1 Pac-10) moved to 12-0 at home this weekend and the Beaver game marked the 400th home game for the Cardinal, who have won more than 80 percent of those.
Stanford has lost just 10 games at home over the last five seasons.
“We saw our team execute the offense as well as we have all season or better,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said of the recent victory over Oregon. “We have players who, when they focus on things, can get it done. We have a lot of different options.”
Despite the super-human appearance, the Cardinal can and has been stopped before. Of Stanford’s two overall losses, one came at the hands of conference rival USC.
It was an on-the-road loss in Los Angeles, but the Trojans have been the only conference team to achieve such a feat.
The Cardinal are ranked sixth nationally, and with the upsets on the weekend, Stanford comfortably sits atop the Pac-10 by a 2 1/2-game margin. No. 20 Washington, second in the Pac-10, lost to Arizona and Arizona State over the weekend.
Stanford will face the Washington schools this week, as the Cardinal battle Washington on Thursday and the Cougars on Saturday. The Cardinal should not have trouble, as they have defeated the two schools by an average of more than 21 points the last time around.
The real battle will be waged Feb. 20, as the Trojans come to Maples Pavilion to try and do the seemingly impossible.

Mendiola who?
Junior guard Giuliana Mendiola of the Washington Huskies is the name. And double-doubles are
the game.
Mendiola was recently named the Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for Jan. 27-Feb. 2. On Saturday, Mendiola set a new precedent for Husky basketball as she scored a school record and career-high 43 points en route to a blowout win over UCLA.
During her team’s destruction of the Los Angeles schools, Mendiola averaged a near triple-double with 32.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2 steals.
Recently, though, her team has suffered in back-to-back losses against the Arizona schools. During the outings, Mendiola put up a combined 42 points on the board.
In the recent loss to Arizona State, the California native also had 10 rebounds and five assists on her way to another double-double.
Mendiola and her team have quite the task at hand as the Huskies go to battle with top-ranked Stanford on Thursday.

Race heats up
With just five or six games left for the Pac-10 schools the race to the top of the conference is getting a little tighter en route to the trip to San Jose for the Pac-10 Tournament.
As expected, Stanford still sits on top and Washington State brings up the rear, but the other eight schools remain in close contention.
Washington and Arizona are tied for second as both try to catch the Cardinal and Arizona State and Oregon State are in a tie for sixth with just under .500 records.
The Pac-10 Tournament begins March 7th, which gives the Conference of Champions just 24 more days to try and work itself into position.