Pre-conference finale a breeze

These are unusual times for the Stanford women. They are ranked outside the top 10 for the first time since the 200809 season.

Even stranger, their RPI is 35th in the country. They’re behind such schools as Quinnipiac, Florida Gulf Coast and Tulane.

The Cardinal finished nonconference play Sunday afternoon by burying UC Santa Barbara 90-34 at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford (8-4) opens Pac-12 play at home against Colorado on Saturday night and hosts Utah next Monday.

“Right now, we’re doing a good job at figuring out our offense and where people could capitalize in it,” said backup point guard Briana Roberson after scoring 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting.

Stanford plays the sixth-toughest schedule in the country, according to the latest RPI report. The Gauchos (0-11) didn’t help that ranking. They don’t have anybody averaging as many as nine points, and they have lost seven of their past eight games by at least 20.

Sunday’s final 56-point margin was the Cardinal’s largest since a 112-35 rout of Washington in the 2008-09 season.

“I’m glad our team finished out the year playing well with everyone contributing,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We’ve really made a drastic change going from being a big team to playing a smaller lineup.”

Against the Gauchos, she used four perimeter players until the final minutes.

“It will remain to be seen if that will work for us (in Pac-12 play), but that’s what we’ve gone to,” she said.

Given the vastly different levels of the two teams, it’s hard to rave about Stanford’s performance, but it shot 54.5 percent and had a 50-21 rebounding advantage. None of the starters played more than 19 minutes.

The Cardinal received 12 points from Lili Thompson, 11 from Karlie Samuelson and 10 from freshman Brittany McPhee. Erica McCall had 12 rebounds.