SPOKANE, Wash. -- The best season in the history of the Pitt women's basketball program came to a close last night when No. 2 seed Stanford defeated the Panthers, 72-53, in a West Region semifinal game at Spokane Arena.

Sixth-seeded Pitt's Cinderella run ended after getting to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history. That achievement came on the heels of making the tournament for the first time in school history last season.

Pitt, an emerging Big East power, was no match for Stanford, long the top program in the Pac-10 Conference. Stanford is in the Elite Eight for the fourth time in the past five seasons. The Cardinal will play No. 1 seed Maryland Monday night in the West Region Final. Maryland defeated No. 4 seed Vanderbilt in the other semifinal game here last night.

The story of the game was Stanford's dominance inside. The Cardinal outscored the Panthers, 38-8, in the lane and won the rebounding battle, 54-30.

"They just dominated us on the inside," Pitt coach Agnus Berenato said.

Stanford center Jayne Appel had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Forward Kayla Pedersen had 12 points and 16 boards. Appel thoroughly outplayed Pitt senior Marcedes Walker, who could only manage two points.

"She's a very good player," Walker said of Appel. "She got the best of me."

The only reason Pitt was in the game was because of junior guard Shavonte Zellous, who scored 22 points. She tallied 15 points in the first half, and the Panthers only trailed by one, 29-28, at the intermission.

"Shavonte put the team on her back tonight," Berenato said.

But it was not nearly enough to pull out a victory. Stanford used a 9-0 rally midway through the second half to pull away from the scrappy Panthers.

Pitt cut the lead to 47-46 on a Mallorie Winn 3-pointer with 8:36 remaining, but some misfortune was right around the corner for the Panthers. Walker, who had four fouls, was taken out of the game. At the same time, Zellous asked Berenato for breather.

With their top two players on the bench, Stanford took advantage in the decisive portion of the game.

"I'm not sure why both of them were out of the game at the same time," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "I try never to take Candice [Wiggins] and Jayne out of the game at the same time. We did take advantage of that a little bit. We responded really well."

Even though Pitt had the good fortune of having a media timeout to rest Zellous, Berenato elected to keep her on the bench for a few more minutes, and that was when the Cardinal began to pull away.

Pitt (24-11) only trailed by one at halftime, but the Panthers came out flat at the beginning of the second half and allowed Stanford to score the first five points of the second half to take a 34-28 lead, which tied for the biggest lead of the game by Stanford.

Stanford (33-3) took its biggest lead of the game when Pedersen completed a 3-point play to make it 45-37 with 11:42 remaining. Pedersen grabbed a rebound drew a fourth foul against Walker.

Getting Walker out of the game turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Panthers, who immediately went on a 9-2 run to get back in the game. Winn's 3-pointer, her third of the game, trimmed the lead to one, and the Panthers had the momentum.

But the momentum was short-lived. Stanford quickly reassumed control with Zellous and Walker out of the game. A Wiggins jumper with 6:26 left that made it 56-46, and the Panthers never threatened again.

"Coach told us before the game when we were scouting them that in games [Walker] scored 10 points or less they hadn't won," Appel said. "So I kind of made that a goal of mine, to make sure I was stopping her. That was our main focus on defense. Making sure she didn't score and getting her in foul trouble really hurt their team because she's a big part of their offense. That was really important for us."

Pitt trailed 29-28 at halftime. The Panthers did a fine job of defending Wiggins, Stanford's leading scorer, who managed just six first-half points. Wiggins did not score until 8:42 remained in the half. But Pitt had no answer for Appel, who dominated the interior with 12 points and five rebounds in the first 20 minutes.

Stanford outrebounded Pitt, 26-14, in the first 20 minutes and outscored the Panthers, 20-2, in the lane. The Panthers were able to stay in the game because Zellous was outstanding. Zellous was 6 for 10 from the field and scored 15 points in the first half.

Walker, Pitt's second-leading scorer, was held to two points in the half and only took two shots from the field.

Stanford held the biggest lead of the first half at six points. Pitt's biggest lead was two points. The Cardinal took the lead with six seconds remaining before halftime when Rosalyn Gold-Onwude drove past Karlye Lim for a bucket.

Stanford shot 41.4 percent (12 for 29) from the field in the first half; Pitt shot 32.3 percent (10 for 31).