The two best teams from the best conference in the country met Sunday evening to determine this year's NCAA Tournament champion. The battle that ensued featured several big runs and meaningful plays ultimately ending with underdog Arizona one point shy of an upset at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
Wildcats star Aari McDonald ran into a wall of Stanford defenders before heaving up a long jump shot on the final possession of the game only to see the ball rim out as the buzzer sounded. The 54-53 loss to the Cardinal marked the end of a historic season for Arizona.
McDonald once again was the catalyst for UA throughout the evening as he has been during her three-year career with the the Wildcats. Stanford made the senior a focal point of its defensive efforts as McDonald saw multiple defenders come her way throughout the game.
That resulted in just five points at halftime for the Arizona guard. Ultimately she was able to execute on offense down the stretch to finish with 22 points, but her final shot attempt is one that will stick with her for a while.
"I got denied hard," McDonald said of the play on her attempted drive to the basket. "I tried to turn the corner, they sent three (defenders) at me. I took a tough, contested shot. Didn't fall."
UA head coach Adia Barnes called McDonald the greatest player in program history after she carried the Wildcats to new heights over the last several weeks ending with the team's first appearance in the Final Four and title game. Barnes had no second guesses about who would end up with the ball on the final possession with 6.1 seconds left in the game.
"It was going to be Aari or nothing just because if you look at the game, really, Aari was the one scoring," the fifth-year UA coach said. "... I knew she was going to be doubled, but running a screen-the-screener type action was the best option. It wasn't like in this game we were hitting from the three, so there's an option for a 3-pointer in that situation. We needed a two.
"We knew she would catch it on the three-point line. That's what happened. But they did a really good job of denying us after the screen. They forced us to catch the ball really high. When Aari went to drive – we know she can go downhill, there's plenty of time, we work on that in practice with special situations – she was pretty much triple teamed and couldn't go downhill. At that point we've been on Aari's back for the whole tournament. She's got to take that shot. It still had a chance of going in, but I have to put the ball in her hands in that situation because she's one of the reasons why we're here."
The third matchup between the two teams went much better than the first two for the Wildcats. UA looked overmatched early on Sunday but eventually fought back with a couple big runs to pull within one point at the 3:35 mark. That came after Arizona trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half.
The Wildcats' defense once again shined Sunday helping to keep the game close. Arizona eventually forced the Cardinal into 21 turnovers, but not being able to take advantage of those opportunities on the other end of the floor proved costly.
"I think we were just taking some quick shots," Barnes said. "I think taking some forced shots, but those shots had been falling prior to this game.They just didn't fall today. We shot 29% from the field. We were missing a lot around the rim, a lot of chippies, a lot of floaters, pull-ups. Just taking the shots off balance. Those are things we don't convert on.
"So if we had to turn them over 21 times, we have to be able to convert. If you would tell me we would lose down by 20 rebounds on the boards, shoot 28%, I would have told you we would have lost by 30. Against great teams like Stanford, we have to be a little bit better at the small things. It doesn't ever come down to the last shot. It comes down to the missed free throws down the stretch, the foul on the 3-point shot, getting the turnovers and not converting. It's those things. It's never the last play."
While McDonald has grabbed a lot of the attention during the NCAA Tournament run for Arizona, the other players on the team have done their part to support their star. Sunday it was two guards who helped keep the team's head above water as Stanford put together some impressive runs.
Bendu Yeaney and Shaina Pellington helped make plays on both ends of the court in the second half to keep the Wildcats within striking distance. Pellington, a transfer from Oklahoma, had one of her best offensive performances scoring 15 points to go with seven rebounds. Meanwhile, Indiana transfer Yeaney came up with critical stops late in the game as she finished with five steals.
"It started with Shaina and Bendu," McDonald said. "They came up big for us second half. Pressuring the ball, getting key steals. I mean, probably their best defensive efforts all season. I'm really proud of them. Shaina gave us a lot of energy. That was probably one of her best games. She had us afloat in the second half."
The win for Stanford helped that program win its first national title since 1992.
UA will now head into the offseason with some decisions about the future still to be made. Senior forward Sam Thomas had seven rebounds in Sunday's loss and has been one of the key pieces for the Arizona defense, but she remains undecided on a potential return next season.
Virginia Tech transfer Trinity Baptiste will also have the opportunity to come back to Arizona next season after one year with the Wildcats because of the NCAA rule allowing players to return next season due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
McDonald, UA's third senior, has already announced her intention to enter the WNBA Draft and forgo her extra season of eligibility. She is currently projected to be a top-10 pick in the draft.
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