After a 28-4 record, Pacific-10 Conference regular-season title (17-1 record) and Pac-10 Tournament title, the No. 5 Stanford women’s basketball team feels right at home as an NCAA two-seed — and for good reason: The Cardinal begins a long-awaited run to the elusive Final Four this Saturday in Maples Pavilion, taking on 15-seed Idaho State.

After three straight years of losing in the Elite Eight — last year in a 62-59 buzzer-beater against Louisiana State — senior center Brooke Smith certainly feels the “sense of urgency” for Stanford to prove that this is “the year.”

“I think [going to the Final Four] is still the goal of our team,” she said. “Obviously, we know that we can’t really talk about Final Four because we have games that lead up to that, so our focus is definitely going to be on Idaho State and winning that game on Saturday.”

The Bengals are much of a mystery for the Cardinal. Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said she doesn’t really know much about the team, but saw them on tape in their 73-50 loss to Brigham Young (an 11-seed in the Greensboro region). (The Cougars defeated Stanford during the preseason in a 55-52 WNIT upset.)

Idaho State has proven a force in the Big Sky Conference, finishing with a 17-13 record. The Bengals recently wrapped up the conference tournament title with an 84-78 win over Northern Arizona.

“They were the No. 2 seed in their tournament, but they won it, so we know they’re coming in on a high, and we know we’ve just got to do our job,” VanDerveer said.

Idaho State was led in the title match by Natalie Doma, who had 24 points and 16 rebounds. It was the 24th double-double of the season for the junior, who averages 21.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per game — more than any member of the Cardinal. Junior Andrea Lightfoot and senior Jeni Boesel average 17.6 and 13.6 points, respectively.

The stats may sound overwhelming, but the Cardinal is confident in its own play.

“I think that at this point in the season you concentrate on what you do; not to say that we don’t do scouting — we do scouting — but we’re not going to change up what we’re doing,” VanDerveer said. “Here’s our team; here’s what we’ve got.”

What the Cardinal has is Candice Wiggins. Returning after missing the last two games of the regular season due to a hamstring injury (which followed an earlier ankle injury), the junior guard led Stanford throughout the Pac-10 Tournament and was named tourney MVP. In three straight games she averaged 32.3 minutes and 21.7 points, including an amazing eight three-pointers against Southern California in the semifinal match.

“I always feel 100 percent,” Wiggins said when asked about her status after a strenuous weekend. “I love playing, and whenever I do, I forget about any ankle or hamstring injury.”

Still, off the court, Wiggins (and probably VanDerveer even moreso) is making sure she stays healthy. Wrapping and keeping her hamstring warm, she said it “is feeling good,” and believes she’s getting her strength back. As for the ankle, the swelling and pain have subsided.

“The feeling of winning the Pac-10 Tournament was so great [that my body] was fine, I wasn’t in pain,” Wiggins said. “I was tired because I had been playing a lot — three games — but I felt good.”

Good news for VanDerveer, who said that heading into Monday’s selection show, her top priority was having everyone healthy. With sophomore Rosalyn Gold-Onwude and freshman JJ Hones out for the season, the 21-year Stanford coach said she’ll rely on her “jumble lineup” of Wiggins, Smith (13.4 points, 7.6 rebounds per game), sophomore guard Jillian Harmon, freshman center Jayne Appel (13.4 points, 7.4 rebounds) and senior center Kristen Newlin (7.9 rebounds) — but there’s room for contributions all around.

“We have a lot of versatility, and depending on who we play, depending on what we need, I think people are just going to come out and play really hard and play really well,” VanDerveer said. “There are certain things you have to do no matter who you play.”

Although taking it one game at a time, the Cardinal is somewhat looking ahead to its second- and third-round prospects. Should Stanford win on Saturday, it would face the winner of seven-seed Old Dominion (a “great tradition in women’s basketball,” according to VanDerveer; the Cardinal lost to the Monarchs, 83-82 in overtime, in its 1997 trip to the Final Four) and 10-seed Florida State.

Awaiting Stanford farther down the bracket could be three-seed LSU — in what would be a Sweet 16 rematch of last year — and top-seed Connecticut in the Regional Final in Fresno, Calif.

“It’s a great bracket,” VanDerveer said. “What I’m excited about is that we have great fans here at Stanford and in the Bay Area, and our fans get to see super basketball with these eight teams coming in.”

Describing how the team has been building momentum after what some may call a slow start — the Cardinal was ranked fourth in the preseason poll, dropped as low as 15th and has climbed back to fifth — Smith said the team has been “working hard, and we’re trying extend it every day that we can” with further wins.

VanDerveer is confident that, should all the pieces come together, Stanford will return to the Elite Eight in Fresno, and hopefully make a trip to Cleveland soon after.

“We have our opportunity,” she said. “It’s up to us to play really well, and if the seed holds, we could be playing in Fresno. We’re just going to have to do our thing, play really hard and play really well.

“It’s all about how you play, and teams being healthy and wanting to win for each other,” VanDerveer continued. “It’s about how hard Brooke is going to play for Candice and how hard Candice is going to play for Brooke at this point, and for the rest of the team.”

Stanford faces Idaho State at 1:30 p.m. (or half an hour after the previous game) this Saturday in Maples Pavilion, a site for the NCAA first and second rounds.