On a night where 10,135 fans packed the stands of McKale Center, Arizona (23-13) beat out TCU (24-11) by a score of 59-53 for a spot in the WNIT Championship. Wednesday night’s crowd was the largest in Arizona history as well as the third largest crowd in any Pac-12 game this season.
Aari McDonald led the way in scoring once again for Arizona as she poured in 19 points to go along with nine rebounds, four assists and four steals. Dominique McBryde was clutch down the stretch from the line as she scored 13 points with six rebounds and three steals.
Sam Thomas did what she does on the defensive end as she hauled in six rebounds and blocked four shots to go with her nine points.
As a team, Arizona suffocated the TCU offense as the Horned Frogs shot 27% from the field. Turnovers were a huge factor in the game as the Wildcats forced 15 turnovers and created 19 points off them.
Arizona held TCU to just three points in the final six minutes of the first quarter and took a 12-9 lead into the second. After a 15-0 run in the second quarter by Arizona thanks to five three-pointers, the Wildcats would take a 29-23 lead into the half.
The Wildcats outscored the Horned Frogs 11-10 in the third quarter and would hang onto the lead throughout the fourth quarter after making seven free throws to ice it, sending Arizona to their first WNIT Championship since 1996.
Next up for Arizona will be Northwestern in the WNIT Championship on Saturday, April 6 at noon MST in McKale Center.