Mcdonald, Arizona defense top Uconn
Win means all Pac-12 clash for title
SAN ANTONIO — 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 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 game. It comes five years after she took the job to rebuild one of the worst programs in the Pac-12.
Arizona will face Stanford on Sunday 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 inches, 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’s star freshman Paige Bueckers in check for long stretches.
Arizona held Uconn to a season-low 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.
The small, but mostly pro-arizona crowd at the Alamodome chanted “U of A!” Arizona players came over to the loud rooting section, pointing to jerseys and waving hands up to get them to get louder.