CHICAGO (AP) - Stanford's Tara VanDerveer's will have to wait for that milestone 800th coaching victory. DePaul made sure Thursday night there were no celebrations on their home floor at McGrath Arena.
The No. 22 Blue Demons took over in the second half with tough defense and torrid shooting and defeated the third-ranked Cardinal 91-71.
VanDerveer - 799-196 in her 32nd season as a head coach - had hoped to join Pat Summitt, Jody Conradt, C. Vivian Stringer and Sylvia Hatchell as women's college coaches with 800 wins.
"It's really totally irrelevant as far as I'm concerned," VanDerveer said.
"We're disappointed in how we played. We really needed more different people to step up ... They've had a lot of success, it is their 14th game and they are ahead of us right now. We need to learn from it and get better."
Keisha Hampton scored 23 of her 27 points in the second half and Felicia Chester had a career-high 24 to help DePaul (13-1) run its winning streak to 10 games.
DePaul's win was especially pleasing for coach Doug Bruno. Both Stringer and Summitt got their 800th victories against DePaul.
"I think Tara is absolutely one of the greatest coaches to ever have coached," Bruno said.
Stanford (6-1) has another challenge ahead to get VanDerveer her 800th. The Cardinal must beat Summitt at Tennessee on Sunday.
Jeanette Pohlen led Stanford with 23 points. The Cardinal played without senior Kayla Pedersen, who was kept out because of a head injury.
"They were more aggressive than us. Tennessee won't be a piece of cake. We have to be aggressive if we want to win," Pohlen said.
Pedersen, the No. 10 scorer and No. 4 rebounder in Stanford history, bumped her head while taking a charge in the first half Sunday against Fresno State and did not return.
VanDerveer said she wasn't told that Pedersen had a concussion but that the guard/forward was experiencing headaches.
When Pedersen didn't take the floor Thursday night, it ended a string of 121 straight starts dating to the 2007-08 opener. The 6-foot-4 senior is averaging 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds. Joslyn Tinkle started in her place.
"We were never into an offensive flow and I thought defensively we did not do a good enough job," VanDerveer said. "They hit a lot of 3s in the second half ... Without Kayla, we were playing a lot of young kids who were a step slow."
After leading by only two at the half, DePaul broke away in the second with a 17-2 run early in the second.
Sam Quigley's 3-pointer ignited the spurt and Hampton scored seven straight points at one juncture as DePaul opened up a 61-45 lead.
The Blue Demons were 7 for 12 on 3-pointers in the second half and shot 59.6 percent from the field for the game. Hampton was 8 for 14 from the field and Chester 8 for 9. DePaul made 19 of 27 free throws.