CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Shannon Hobson, right, battles for control of the ball with a Stanford player during the first half of Arizona's 51-46 loss to the Cardinal in the championship game of the State Farm Pac-10 Tournament last night at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

San Jose, Calif. ÷ Moments before the opening tip of the Pac-10 Tournament championship game, the Stanford band played "Our House."

It would have been hard to find a more appropriate song.

The Cardinal came back from a 16-point deficit ÷ the biggest comeback in the history of the tournament ÷ thanks in part to the home-court feel in San Jose's HP Pavilion, which lies 20 miles from Stanford.

"Our fans were here. You guys rock," said Stanford senior forward Nicole Powell, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, to a raucous partisan Cardinal crowd in a post-game ceremony.

Arizona had its fans: about 50 of them, most of whom were family and friends of senior guard Aimee Grzyb, a San Jose native.

And the Wildcats had their band. They had Wilma. They had their cheerleaders.

But HP Pavilion was Stanford's house for the second straight season.

"Any time you can have that kind of fan support, I think it definitely influences the players in a way. But it's on the players," said UA head coach Joan Bonvicini. "The crowd doesn't play the game for you, but it can give you that extra momentum and extra spirit."

"We really appreciate their support, but as (Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer) always says, they can't score for us," said Cardinal guard Susan Borchardt. "It is an added bonus to have friends and family here, but we still need to play basketball like we know how to."

Stanford played basketball like it knew how in the game's final minutes, when three quarters of the crowd, all decked out in Cardinal red, stood and made itself heard when Arizona had the ball.

The Wildcats scored 15 second-half points, their lowest total for a single half since they scored 12 in the first half Jan. 10 ÷ at Stanford.

The Cardinal were 9-0 at home during Pac-10 play this season. One can argue that with three wins in this year's conference tourney, they are now 12-0.

But Bonvicini didn't make any excuses for her NCAA Tournament-bound team that had won its last four games away from McKale Center, where the Wildcats went 14-0 this season.

"I think we played very well down the stretch, and now it's in the selection committee's hands," she said. "But we have a good record, we've played well, and now we just have to use this as incentive ÷ use this to play better in the tournament."