Candice Wiggins celebrates following Stanford’s win over Connecticut in an NCAA women’s semifinal game Sunday. Associated Press Photo.

TAMPA, Fla. — Candice Wiggins huddled with her Stanford teammates and talked about playing smart. She talked about proving something to themselves. She talked about it being too early for the Cardinal to go home.

“The thing that’s driving this team is we don’t want to stop playing with each other,” Wiggins said. “Me especially. This is my last time with this group. And everyone, we just don’t want it to end.”

That’s easier said than done when you’re facing Connecticut in the national semifinals, but Wiggins and her teammates are on a mission.

Put a challenge in front of them, and they find a way to win.

They upset the Huskies 82-73 Sunday night, advancing to their first NCAA title game in 16 years.

Now, all that stands between the Cardinal (35-3) and the school’s third national championship is Tennessee (35-2), which is trying to become the first repeat winner since UConn won three straight from 2002-04.

Wiggins and her teammates are relishing their role as underdogs. Even though the Cardinal have won 23 straight and 32 of 34 since an early season loss to UConn, not many expected them to make it to the title game.

“I think we were probably slept on a little bit. A lot of people didn’t have us coming to the Final Four in the first place,” Wiggins said. “That feeds us, and we have a lot of motivation behind that.”

Wiggins had 25 points, 13 rebounds and five assists against UConn, which beat Stanford by 12 in November, a loss that sent coach Tara VanDerveer searching for ways to get her senior star’s teammates more involved in the offense.

The Cardinal approached Sunday night’s rematch as an opportunity to show how far they’ve come.

And players like Kayla Pederson, Jayne Appel and JJ Hones, who were not big factors in the first meeting, stepped up to end UConn’s hopes for a fifth national title this decade, and sixth overall.

“Those kids knocked in shots today that didn’t even come close to going in November,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “But they’re going in now.”

The first player to have two 40-point games in the same NCAA tournament, Wiggins seemed to be everywhere on the floor and finished five assists shy of the first triple-double in women’s Final Four history.

She didn’t shoot particularly well, going 7-for-19, but made two huge 3-pointers to help Stanford pull away for good after UConn trimmed a seven-point halftime deficit to 47-46 and appeared to be taking control.

“They played the game today the way we usually play it,” Auriemma said. “We got done in by our own stuff.”

When Wiggins wasn’t making big shots, Hones and Pedersen stepped up to break UConn’s morale.

Hones hit a deep 3-pointer to put Stanford up 10 with 3:20 to go, then Pedersen answered a 3-pointer that drew UConn within 71-66 with a 3 of her own to send Cardinal fans into celebration mode.

“This is a great win for our team, for our program,” said VanDerveer, who watched her team finish a win shy of the Final Four three of the past five seasons.

UConn (36-2), understandably, was crushed.

The Huskies were the dominant team in women’s basketball all season, overcoming season-ending injuries to starters Mel Thomas and Kalana Greene to make the Final Four for the first time since winning their most recent national title in 2004.

“I don’t think there’s any way that you can explain the feeling that you have when you lose this game, or the national championship game for that matter,” Auriemma said.

“The incredible effort that it takes to get here, and in a span of 40 minutes it’s gone. ... It’s a stunned feeling that you have. ... You have to have been in that situation to experience it.”