It’s no secret that the trek to the Bay Area has quickly evolved into the toughest road trip for the ASU women’s basketball team.

After all, ASU, Stanford and California have finished in the top three in the Pac-10 standings the past three seasons and have been the conference’s trio of NCAA Tournament representatives.

But this year, the roots go even deeper.

It starts with a pair of sibling rivalries.

When the Sun Devils (12-6, 4-3 Pac-10) arrive at Stanford, senior forward Kayli Murphy’s younger brother Trent will be there to greet her and her teammates.

Trent Murphy, who was a star defensive end for the football team at Brophy Prep in Phoenix, is now a member of Jim Harbaugh’s squad in Palo Alto. He will make his debut for the Cardinal next season after redshirting in 2009.

But on Thursday, he will be donning the maroon and gold.

“He will be wearing an ASU t-shirt, and he will be rooting for me,” Kayli Murphy said. “I did wear my Stanford shirt when ASU [football] played them. We just root for each other — you have to stick with family.”

Then when the Sun Devils travel to Berkeley, sophomore wing Kimberly Brandon will see a familiar face on the opposite sideline wearing the same exact number — her younger sister Gennifer.

Gennifer Brandon is in her freshman year at Cal after earning McDonald’s All-American honors as a senior at Chatsworth High School in Chatsworth, Calif. She’s averaging 6.9 points and 6.8 rebounds per game while coming off the bench for the Golden Bears.

Kimberly Brandon said that there has already been plenty of banter going on between the two sisters.

“She’s been texting me since last week,” she said. “She is the one that is trash talking. I’m just like, ‘OK, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?’ We’ll see who comes out on top.”

And of course, ASU coach Charli Turner Thorne will once again return to her alma mater Thursday and face her old coach in Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer.

Turner Thorne also coached Stanford sophomore guard Janette Pohlen and junior forward Kayla Pedersen and Cal senior guard Alexis Gray-Lawson when she served as the head coach of the World University Games last summer.

But even though there are numerous connections between ASU and its foes from northern California, this weekend’s trip will still be about two 40-minute basketball games.

And the Sun Devils, who are on a four-game winning streak, are trying to prove they are officially back on track after starting the conference season 0-3.

A win against No. 2 Stanford (17-1, 7-0 Pac-10) for the first time since 2006 would certainly make that statement.

“We haven’t been in the underdog role a lot in recent history here, and it’s kind of fun,” Turner Thorne said. “We’ll be able to go in there, and we’re just going to try to be ready to play our butts off and go for it. [We] definitely [won’t] put too much pressure on ourselves.”

Stanford’s only loss so far this season came at the hands of No. 1 Connecticut in December, and the Cardinal features arguably the most dominant 1-2-3 post combination in the country in sophomore Nnemkadi Ogwumike, junior Kayla Pedersen and senior Jayne Appel.

Ogwumike has turned into one of the nation’s biggest superstars during her second season in Palo Alto by leading the conference in scoring (19.5 points per game) and ranking second in rebounding (10.7 per game). Pedersen is just behind, averaging 16.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Appel, the reigning Pac-10 Player of the Year, scores 12.8 points per game and pulls down 9.1 boards.

“They’re awfully good,” Turner Thorne said. “You watch them and you just go ‘wow.’ We aren’t as strong offensively [as we have been in the past], so it’s one of those years where we’ve got to be completely locked in and play a great defensive game.”

But inside play is also the strength of the Sun Devils, who will likely need the entire post rotation of Murphy, junior forward Becca Tobin, sophomore Kali Bennett, redshirt freshman Janae Fulcher and freshman Joy Burke to contribute on both ends of the floor.

“It’s just huge to bring our own presence,” Murphy said. “If we just bring that physical game, I think we can battle for it and not let them just dominate. People play soft against [Stanford], and then they just have a field day.”

In last Sunday’s contest at UA, Tobin matched her career high with 19 points, while Tobin and Murphy combined to grab 20 rebounds.

In Cal, the Sun Devils face a team much like themselves. The Golden Bears (10-8, 4-3 Pac-10) are also breaking in several new players, started the Pac-10 season 0-3 and have now won four in a row to find themselves in a fourth-place tie in the standings with ASU.

“They’re definitely getting better,” Turner Thorne said. “It takes a while when everybody’s new — you think you know what you’ve got, but you’re not really sure. You’ve got to tweak your offense and make adjustments.”

But the Golden Bears’ bread and butter lie on the outside. Gray-Lawson is coming off a school-record 47-point performance against Oregon State last weekend and earned the Pac-10 Player of the Week for those efforts.

“Alexis Gray-Lawson is really starting to hit her stride,” Turner Thorne said. “[She] is really realizing ‘Hey, I’ve got to put this team on my shoulders a little bit.’”

ASU has also gotten strong play out of its senior on the perimeter, as Danielle Orsillo has averaged 18 points per game during the Sun Devils’ four-game winning streak.

The last time ASU faced Cal, it stunned the then-No. 9 Golden Bears 63-41 in Berkeley last March to win its 15th consecutive game. The Sun Devils then lost their regular-season finale to Stanford, where point guard Dymond Simon re-tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu