The Wiggins-Smith Show?

Who needs a hyphen? Even better, who needs the names?

In today’s first round of the NCAA Tournament, senior center Brooke Smith and junior guard Candice Wiggins weren’t the only ones who found the spotlight as the two-seed Cardinal dominated 15-seed Idaho State University, 96-58. With the victory, Stanford improves to 29-4 (17-1 Pacific-10 Conference), while the Bengals’ season ends with a 17-14 record (11-5 Big Sky).

Head coach Tara VanDerveer set the tone for the game by starting her experienced players, and that decision paid off immediately. In the first ten minutes of play, senior Brooke Smith and junior Cissy Pierce combined for all of the Cardinal’s 22 points, including Pierce’s 10-point run in the opening five minutes.

Wiggins recognized Pierce’s contribution (a game-total 14 points) as a momentum boost for her teammates.

“[Today showed] that she’s a great shooter and people can’t just sag off of her,” Wiggins said. “We have great perimeter shooters on our team, and it just builds our confidence when she is hitting her outside shots.”

VanDerveer agreed, noting especially that Pierce’s play gave other Stanford players opportunities by diverting the focus of Idaho State’s defense.

“Cissy is a really good shooter and they left her open, which gave her a rhythm, and she hit her shots today,” VanDerveer said. “It felt like it took some pressure off Candice, and it also gave Brooke a lot of good looks.”

Pierce was one of four Cardinal women to register in the double digits: Smith tallied a season-high 20 points, Wiggins added another 16, and freshman guard Melanie Murphy had 10. Smith said that much of her success came from finding holes in the defense.

“My shots were falling, so that’s always fun and exciting. Just trying to take what the defense gave me,” Smith said. “With most zones, you just have to find the openings because there are going to be gaps in zone play. You just have to find openings and make reads [to] get open looks.”

Stanford first tore the game open at 11:27 in the first half, beginning a 27-7 spurt that lasted nearly until the break. In the second half, the Bengals never got closer than 18, despite the efforts of Natalie Doma. The junior center led Idaho State with 32 points and nine rebounds. Her performance made her the Bengals’ all-time leading scorer with 1,554 points.

Stanford did not allow any other Idaho State player to break the double-digit barrier in scoring. In fact, while the Bengals are usually bolstered by junior guard Andrea Lightfoot, who averages 18.5 points and five rebounds per game, the Cardinal defense held her to only four points.

“In order for us to get going offensively today, I think we had to play well defensively,” VanDerveer said.

Stanford’s frontcourt made it happen, out-rebounding Idaho State 53-20. Additionally, freshman forward Jayne Appel’s three blocks matched the school’s single-season record of 58.

Once the Card “got going,” there was no stopping the offensive momentum. Whenever the starters got to rest, the bench picked up exactly where their teammates had left off: Murphy offered 10 points in 19 minutes, freshman Michelle Harrison added 8 points and five rebounds, and sophomore forward Morgan Clyburn hit two quick threes in the final four minutes.

Great play today, though, is not necessarily a guarantee for success in the second round. Stanford will meet Florida State University this Monday at 5 p.m., again in Maples Pavilion.

As the Cardinal heads further into the bracket, and Stanford meets stronger and stronger opponents, VanDerveer expects a different game.

“[Florida State] is a really different match up than today’s,” VanDerveer said. “[In their 85-75 defeat of Old Dominion today] they had a lot of people knocking down shots. They’re a very athletic team, and they’ve got a great inside-outside game. They’ve got a great length defensively, so they change things a lot faster [than Idaho State]. It’s going to be a great game.”