CARDINAL RULE NATION, AT LAST
Stanford holds on to win its first NCAA Tournament since 1992
The national championship game was like Stanford’s whole season; it wasn’t pretty, but it was gritty.
Stanford won its third NCAA women’s basketball championship and first in 29 years, hanging on to defeat Arizona 54-53 on Sunday at the Alamodome in the first-ever all-Pac-12 title game.
The Cardinal (31-2) committed 21 turnovers, including a shot clock violation with 6.1 seconds left that gave the Wildcats (21-6) and Pac-12 Player of the Year Aari McDonald one last chance. But Stanford triple-teamed McDonald, and her desperation 3-pointer hit off the back of the rim as time expired.
“No one knows the score. Just that it’s a national championship,” said Tara VanDerveer, who became the winningest women’s basketball coach in history earlier this season. “We didn’t execute the way we
wanted to or needed to, but we did get the stop that we needed.”
The came after Stanford had to spend 65 straight days away from campus during the season because of COVID-19 health protocols in Santa Clara County, and 87 nights on the road overall.
“It was just a long, very difficult journey,” said sophomore Haley Jones, who was named Most Outstanding Player. “Living out of your bag, it’s just a lot. You’re on a bus or a plane all the time, and there’s never really an end in sight. But from that experience, it just really grew this extra chip on our shoulder. We just had something extra to us this year, and I think it came from being resilient from all those different things that we went through.”
A Santa Cruz native and the No. 1 recruit in the country coming out of Archbishop Mitty, Jones scored a team-high 17 points, including a threepoint play with 2:24 remaining that put the Cardinal up 54-50.
Stanford didn’t score again, and McDonald made 3-of-4 free throws in the final minute to cut the deficit to 54-53. But after the Cardinal failed to get a shot up on its last possession, Stanford made up for it by pressuring McDonald on the final play and keeping her from getting a clean look.
The 5-foot-6 guard was covered by 5-9 Anna Wilson, with 6-0 Lexie Hull and 6-4 Cameron Brink also coming over to help.
“I was just like, ‘Please God don’t go in,” Jones said. “We had three people on her, they were just suffocating her. We knew she was the one who would take the shot. Honestly you never know, she’s made some wild shots because she’s just that great. You hope it doesn’t go in. There’s three people there, that’s all you can do. It’s not really up to us at that point.”
McDonald scored 22 points but was held to 5-of20 shooting from the field. Stanford held Arizona to 28.8 percent shooting overall, ensuring no opponent would shoot 42 percent from the field this season.
The Cardinal used its height to its advantage, topping Arizona 47-29 in rebounds, 11-0 in secondchance points and 36-20 in points in the paint. Hull had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Brink had 10 points, six rebounds and three blocks despite being limited to 19 minutes because of foul trouble.
“I don’t think we really showed our best in any of the games (in the NCAAs),” Jones said. “And I think it just shows that we’re going to tough it out, we’re going to stick with it, we’re resilient, we’re gritty. No more ‘Nice girls from Stanford.’ We came into this season saying we want to win a natty, and we stuck with it through all the adversity.”
It was another balanced effort for Stanford, who had seven players average at least seven points. Firstteam All-American point guard Kiana Williams, playing in her hometown, had more turnovers (six) than points (five), but her teammates picked up the slack.
“We always have someone who steps up, and that’s why we were so successful this year,” Williams said. “The scoring load wasn’t always on me.”
Stanford withstood three last-second shots by opponents in the Final Four – South Carolina also had two chances in the paint in the final seconds of Stanford’s 66-65 semifinal win.
Stanford, the top overall seed, previously won in 1990 and 1992, and lost finals in 2008 and 2010. Arizona, playing in its first Final Four, had lost to the Cardinal twice by a combined 41 points this season but countered every run on Sunday.
Stanford scored 12 straight points to go up 14-3, but the Wildcats responded with a 16-5 run to lead 2120 midway through the second quarter. The Cardinal answered with 11 straight points to make it 31-21 and never relinquished the lead, though Arizona kept charging.
Stanford pounded the ball inside, scoring six straight in the paint to go up 4940 to start the fourth quarter. But Arizona got within 51-50 with 3:35 remaining, ensuring another close finish for Stanford. The Cardinal had overcome a 12-point halftime deficit against Louisville in the Elite Eight, and then persevered through back-to-back 1-point games in the Final Four.
Per ESPN, Stanford became the first team in the men’s or women’s tournament to win its semifinal and final by 1 point.
McDonald had a steal and was fouled in transition, hitting 1-of-2 from the line to make it 54-51 with 59 seconds left. After Williams missed a pull-up in the lane, McDonald was again fouled in transition and this time made both free throws with 36 seconds left.
The Cardinal didn’t even attempt a shot on its final possession, but ran out the 30-second clock to make the final play more difficult.
“That’s the way basketball is,” VanDerveer said. “If you have a faint heart or a weak stomach, then don’t coach.”
But VanDerveer said that the adversity the team faced off the court helped it on the court.
After the win, with the net wrapped around her neck, Williams recounted how the team broke protocol in September. On the fourth day of what was supposed to be a five-day quarantine when they first returned to campus, Williams said the team went to an offcampus gym in order to play pick-up.
“When (Tara) found out she was so heartbroken and disappointed,” Williams said. “And I thought the only way to make up for it was to win a championship for her. We said from there on out we’re going to be better leaders, follow the rules, follow protocols. And to win this natty, to look back on that experience, we know that she’s going to be proud of this team. And I’ll add that I think it was worth it, to play those pickup games.”