For the first time in the 2003-04 women’s basketball season, Stanford is not atop the Pacific-10 Conference standings.
The No. 11 Cardinal (17-5 overall, 10-3 Pac-10) were swept in Arizona for the first time in 17 years. It started with an 88-83 loss to the No. 24 Wildcats and ended with a 73-53 loss at the hands of Arizona State.
“(Stanford senior) Nicole Powell had a look on her face that said ‘Oh no, what’s happening?’” Arizona State forward Emily Westerberg told the Stanford Daily. “That’s when we knew. They had a look in their eyes — they were scared.”
The Sun Devils worked the numbers in their favor Saturday. The Cardinal committed 11 turnovers, shot less than 16.2 percent from the field and was outrebounded 28-25 in the second half.
It was quite a different picture in the first half. For 20 minutes, Stanford played like Thursday’s loss never happened. With a 28-18 lead going into the break, the Cardinal seemed to have returned to form.
“Our second half was an absolute meltdown,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer told the Stanford Daily. “There didn’t seem to be anything that we did right.”
The meltdown and the sweep by the Arizona programs was what VanDerveer called a “crossroads” in the Cardinal’s season. Saturday’s loss also changed her somewhat optimistic tune from Thursday.
“All you are racing for is seeding in the Pac-10 Tournament,” VanDerveer had said after Thursday’s loss. “Our tournament has created a rubber match for the season. We (Arizona-Stanford) will play again.”
The Pac-10 final standings lay the groundwork for the Pac-10 Conference in San Jose, Calif., the first weekend in March. All 10 conference programs are included in the tournament, with the top six teams not playing until the second day.
With a half-game lead over Stanford in the conference, the Wildcats host the Oregon schools and make two more road trips — to Southern California and UCLA and Washington and Washington State — to close out their conference season.
“We are a good home court team,” Arizona guard Dee-Dee Wheeler said Thursday. “We wanted the win at home to keep the top spot in the Pac-10.”

Powell adds more records
With 15 rebounds in Saturday’s loss, Powell became the sixth player in conference history to score 1,800 points and grab 1,000 rebounds in her Pac-10 career.
“We expected Nicole Powell to be a great player,” Arizona’s Shawntinice Polk said Thursday. “She didn’t have the best first half, but she really showed her stuff the second half.”
Powell had 10 rebounds Thursday. She is now No. 12 all-time in the Pac-10 with 1,837 points. She is also No. 5 on the all-time rebounds list with 1,011.

The ranked fall
Stanford, the sole Pac-10 team ranked in either Top 25 poll last week, dropped from No. 7 to No. 11 in both the ESPN/USA Today and AP polls released Monday.
Arizona moved up to No. 24 in the AP poll and received votes but missed the top 25 in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Arizona State received votes in both polls. USC received votes in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

Player of the Week
Polk, a sophomore for the Wildcats, earned her second Pac-10 Player of the Week award Monday for her play during Arizona’s home sweep of California and Stanford.
Polk averaged 18 points, 16.5 rebounds and 4.5 blocks during the two games for her ninth and 10th double-doubles of the season.