SPOKANE, Wash.-- The Pitt Panthers have a tall order in their NCAA West Region semifinal against Stanford tonight. They have to try to figure out a way to stop Cardinal senior guard Candice Wiggins.

Wiggins, Stanford's all-time leading scorer, tallied a school-record 44 points in Stanford's 88-54 victory against UTEP in the second round.

It was the third-most points scored in an NCAA game and the most since Sheryl Swoopes scored 47 for Texas Tech in the 1993 NCAA title game.

One Pitt player, senior guard Mallorie Winn, played against Wiggins in high school. Winn and Wiggins are from San Diego, and Winn's team defeated Wiggins' team to win the county championship.

"She's a very good player," Winn said.

"She was very good in high school. She was all-everything, all-country, all that kind of stuff.

"But it's not about me and her. It's really about us knowing our game plan and understanding that Candice is the focal point of their team. So we really need to pay attention to her and make a great effort to limit what she can do in this game."

Stanford runs the triple-post offense, which is the same offense Connecticut uses. The Panthers played Connecticut twice in the regular season and have a former Huskies player on their coaching staff who was responsible for putting together the game plan for this game. Shea Ralph played for Connecticut from 1997-2001 and has been on Agnus Berenato's staff for five seasons.

"They both run the triple-post offense and they're both pretty good at it," Berenato said. "I feel very fortunate that we have played Connecticut twice."

Stanford has been to the Sweet 16 three times in the past four seasons and has advanced to the Elite Eight all three occasions. This is Pitt's first trip to the Sweet 16.

The Panthers said that experience is overrated.

"The one thing that Stanford has is unbelievable tradition," Berenato said.

"They have won national championships and been to Final Fours and have been to like 1,932 Elite Eights and Sweet 16s and all that other stuff. But my kids don't know that."

Said senior forward Marcedes Walker: "It's not about experience right now. It's about who is going to go out there and play the hardest to get the win."