By John Reid

Daily News Staff Writer

STANFORD — Maples Pavilion was kind to No. 13 Stanford on Friday night as the Cardinal crushed Arizona 82-58 in a Pac-12 game. Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer is hoping the home hardwood will be just as kind when No. 9 Arizona State visits Maples on Valentine’s Day with a 6 p.m. tip-off. Stanford (20-5, 10-3 Pac-12) is two games back of the Sun Devils (20-4, 11-1 Pac-12), who share the conference lead with No. 8 Oregon State (20-3, 11-1 Pac-12).

Love may not be in the air Sunday when Stanford meets ASU, which bedeviled the Cardinal 49-31 back on Jan. 4 in Tempe. The 31 points was an all-time scoring low for Stanford.

“We got down so quickly, we couldn’t recover,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer about her team’s last meeting with the Sun Devils. “We’re going to have to score. We did not take care of the ball. We did not attack, offensively. Our defense was OK. We didn’t finish. We have to make layups.”

“We know our next game is our biggest game,” said Stanford center Kaylee Johnson, who had 10 points and five boards in 14 minutes. “We’re focusing on ASU. We know they’re aggressive. We have to come out and battle. We’re all ready for that.”

The Cardinal, which had a season-high 13 steals, jumped to an 8-0 lead on a quick layin by Lili Thompson, a sweet drive by Bri Roberson, a hoop in the lane by Johnson and putback by Erica McCall.

Johnson followed Karlie Samuelson’s 3-pointer with a hoop and it was 17-2 Cardinal with 5:19 to play in the first period.

“I liked how we got out of the gate and got our offense going,” VanDerveer said. “Bri Roberson pushed the ball. Marta (Sniezek) pushed the ball. We’re knocking down shots and playing the way we want to play. It’s fun to have everyone on our team get some playing time. We could rest some people to get ready for Sunday.”

Sniezek, a freshman point guard, did a good job of finding the open player, churning out five assists, one short of her personal best. Sniezek had a highlight reel play when she took the ball on a break, faked a pass to her right, then went in for a layin for 28-9 Stanford. Samuelson had four assists, the Cardinal racking up 17 assists for the game.

“This is the most you’ve seen us run, getting the ball and getting in transition,” VanDerveer said. “It’s what we have been working on all week. It’s fun to see when you work on things, you see it happen out there. We were trying to get out and go and move the ball. We played Arizona better this time around.”

VanDerveer was able to rest some of her top players. McCall played 22 minutes, scoring 12 points, grabbing five boards and a pair of steals. Thompson played 20 minutes, finishing with 11 points and three assists. Sniezek had three steals.

“I liked our defensive aggressiveness,” VanDerveer said. “We gave them too many 3-point plays. Arizona does a lot what Arizona State does, just that Arizona State does it better. It was good practice to being picked up full-court.”

True freshman Shannon Coffee played eight minutes, while freshman Alexa Romano was on the floor eight minutes, scoring seven points. Kiran Lakhian, a walk-on, scored four points, snaring three rebounds.

“It worked different to spread the minutes around this way,” VanDerveer said. “It wasn’t just one person. It nice to have some balance. It’s fun for people to experience success. We needed this kind of game.”

With five games left in the regular season, VanDerveer is more concerned about preparing her team for the postseason. Mathematically, Stanford is very much in the race for the Pac-12 regular season title. The Cardinal has a date with Oregon State at Maples Pavilion on Feb. 26. “The way it is now with an unbalanced schedule, it definitely favors some teams over others,” VanDerveer said. “Our team is built for a tournament run. We have the depth to play three games in three days. The key is keep improving and keep people healthy.”

Eastside Prep alum Destiny Graham played 21 minutes for the Wildcats, scoring six points, adding eight rebounds, one short of her season-high.

The Wildcats (11-14, 2-11 Pac-12) have lost seven straight games, nine out of their last 10.

Stanford needs three victories to reach 1,000 wins in its program.