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Pedersen leads No. 2 Stanford to victory.

Nov 23, 2009 - 1:11 AM DAVIS, Calif.(AP) -- Haylee Donaghe had the best three days of her basketball life preparing for No. 2 Stanford. Even game day turned out to be a lot of fun despite a 25-point loss.

Kayla Pedersen had 17 points and 11 rebounds in leading the second-ranked Cardinal past UC Davis 76-51 on Sunday.

"We've played them before so we were able to focus on our game plan instead of freaking out that they were the No. 2 team in the nation," said Donaghe, whose young sister Hannah plays for Stanford but was sidelined with an injury. "We had three solid days of preparation and we got a lot accomplished. There was a buzz among the players that the second best team was coming to our house. When is that going to happen?"

Pedersen said she enjoyed the trip as the Cardinal helped draw a big crowd.

"I think it's great," said the junior forward. "I was at a shop near Stanford the other day and somebody stopped me and said 'I'm driving to Davis. I'm with you guys.' And even having Davis fans come out and cheer against us was great. It made for a fun atmosphere."

Jayne Appel added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Cardinal (4-0), who won their fourth straight in the series. Nnemkadi Ogwumike scored 10 of her 11 points in the second half and JJ Hones had 11.

"We love playing in front of people," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "That's a well-coached team and their kids play hard. They're scrappy and they play together. They took away our transition game so we never got any easy baskets."

Donaghe scored 11 points to lead the Aggies (2-2), who were coming off an 18-point win over San Francisco.

The Aggies scored the game's first five points but Stanford went on a 16-2 run to take control.

"We wanted to enjoy the moment," Donaghe said. "Realistically we were not going to win that game but there were moments and we can take those and feel good about them as we move forward. This will help propel the rest of our schedule. Expectations of ourselves are higher now."

Stanford is the highest ranked team to play in Davis, drawing a crowd of 1,759 - more than three times what the Aggies drew for their home opener last Tuesday. Long lines of fans, students and otherwise, were on hand before the doors officially opened and the Aggies' band performed.

The Cardinal played their first game here in 32 years.

"One thing we can take away from this game is the need to stay strong," Pedersen said. "Things were not going for us at times and that challenged us to refine things."

Sandy Simpson became the Aggies' winningest coach last year in leading the school during their transition to Division I.

"When you are going up against one of the top two teams in the country you think about what we do to keep them off balance," Simpson said. "We picked our poison and we stayed with the game plan. Stanford is just a fundamentally sound team. When you take away one thing they adjust and do something else. Most teams are not as disciplined as they are."

Stanford was bigger, stronger and deeper but that didn't stop the pesky Aggies from making a couple of runs during the second half.

The Cardinal left most of their starters in the game into the final minute.

The Cardinal led 42-25 at the half.