Arizona knocks off UConn, setting up all-Pac-12 final
Aari McDonald and Adia Barnes have marched Arizona out of the basketball desert to the doorstep of a national championship.
McDonald scored 26 points and led a smothering defensive effort as the Wildcats beat UConn 69-59 Friday night to advance to the women’s NCAA Tournament championship game for the first time in school history.
The Wildcats (21-5) never trailed against the favored and fabled Huskies, who have made the Final Four 13 consecutive times, but haven’t made the championship game since 2016 when UConn won its 11th title.
And Barnes, who led Arizona to the NCAA Tournament as a player two decades ago, is now just the third coach to lead her alma mater to the championship. It comes five years after she took the job to rebuild one of the worst programs in the Pac-12.
Arizona will face Stanford tonight in the first all-Pac-12 final. Barnes got there by beating UConn and Geno Auriemma, who coached all of UConn’s 11 championships.
“No one thought we’d win, no one thought we’d be here,” Barnes said. “We don’t care. We believed in each other. We believed, our team believed.”
McDonald, who stands just 5-foot-6, has led the way on the court since transferring from Washington and sitting out her first season when Arizona won just six games.
She did it all for the Wildcats against UConn with slashing drives, pinpoint shooting from long range and a defensive intensity that held UConn star freshman Paige Bueckers in check for long stretches.
Arizona held UConn to a seasonlow in points and led by 14 late in the third quarter before holding off a late push. At the final buzzer, McDonald threw the ball high in the air and was mobbed by her teammates near center court. Then she shared a long hug with Barnes.
Bueckers, Associated Press Player of the Year, finished with 18 points and her 3-pointer got UConn within 60-55 in the final two minutes before Arizona closed out the win with free throws. Christyn Williams led UConn (28-2) with 20 points before fouling out.
Stanford 66, South Carolina 65
Haley Jones came up with a big shot, and Stanford got a little bit of luck to get back to the national championship game for the first time in 11 years.
Jones scored 24 points, including the go-ahead jumper with 32 seconds left, to help Stanford beat South Carolina and advance to the women’s NCAA Tournament title game.
“It was a battle. It was a really tough game where we had to work really hard,” Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said.
It’s Stanford’s first trip to the title game since 2010, which was also in San Antonio. The Cardinal lost to UConn in that contest, 53-47. Now they’ll face Pac-12 rival Arizona tonight.
Leading by one, the Cardinal turned it over with 6.2 seconds left at midcourt and Brea Beal missed a contested layup as Lexie Hull hustled back to get in her way. Aliyah Boston grabbed the rebound, but her putback attempt also bounced off the rim, setting off a wild celebration by the Cardinal.