Past performance, as they say in the stock market, is not necessarily an indicator of future results.

In the case of the Stanford-Cal women’s basketball rivalry, all it took was two days and a change of venues to come up with a completely different result.

After losing to Cal on a last-second basket at Berkeley on Thursday night, No. 8 Stanford handed the Bears their worst loss of the season, 75-50, Saturday at Maples Pavilion.

“We were playing with a chip on our shoulder,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We didn’t like what happened the last two games (including a loss to Utah). There were a lot of things we needed to do better, including coaching decisions.”

The Cardinal fashioned their turnaround with a balanced offense and a smothering defense that limited Cal to 27 percent shooting.

Stanford (18-3, 8-2 Pac-12) got 19 points each from Kiana Williams and DiJonai Carrington and 16 from Alanna Smith.

“We knew coming into the game on Thursday how bad Cal wanted it,” Carrington said. “Seeing how excited they were after the win really got to us, and we didn’t want that again.”

One of the few positive notes for Cal (14-7, 5-5) was that Kristine Anigwe scored 20 points and tied Colleen Galloway’s school career record of 2,320 points. The nation’s leading rebounder also had 20 boards before fouling out with 2:23 left.

It was Stanford’s 21st straight home win and its 20th win in its past 24 games with the Bears.

The Cardinal badly needed to avoid a three-game losing streak with No. 9 Oregon State and No. 4 Oregon coming to Maples this week.

“I thought our team was really focused and played much better defensively,” VanDerveer said. “We worked harder to rebound. Cal has a very talented team, and we had to play better to win. I thought we took better shots.”

The Cardinal dominated the first quarter. They jumped to a 22-4 lead on a flurry of drives and back-door layups in their Princeton offense.

“It was really a struggle at the start,” Cal head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “A lot of that is because of their offense and their personnel.”

The fact Smith can shoot so well from the perimeter “makes it really hard to guard the back cuts,” Gottlieb added. “They do a nice job of running it. They cut really hard. They’re bigger than we are at the wings. We did not do a great job defending their action, especially early.”

Anigwe had just four field goals in 13 attempts, but cashed in at the foul line (12-for-16).

VanDerveer was glad she had 6-3 sophomore Maya Dodson back to help defend Anigwe after Dodson missed eight games because of a foot injury. In addition to her defense Saturday, she had nine points, four rebounds and three blocks.

“Wow — her blocks!” VanDerveer said. “She doesn’t play against anybody better all year. I thought she did really well. I didn’t like a couple of her fouls, but to be able to come out there after sitting for a whole month and step up to that challenge, it was impressive. You’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg with her.”

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald