At Alamodome, Stanford takes title.
After 29 years, Cardinal win third crown for Vanderveer
After a nearly 30-year wait, Stanford has returned to the summit of women’s college basketball.
The top-seeded Cardinal claimed their third national championship in program history on Sunday, holding off upstart No. 3 seed Arizona 54-53 in the Alamodome.
Coach Tara Vanderveer, who has become the winningest coach in NCAA women’s basketball history after taking the reins at Stanford in 1985, adds a third national title to her resume after leading the Cardinal to championships in 1990 and 1992.
“We just grew so much with each other, because during the hard times, there’s nowhere else to turn except each other,” Stanford sophomore Haley Jones said on the court after the game. “We just found strength in one another, and this was the goal all along, so it’s surreal to be here right now.”
Stanford led most of the way and had to stop Arizona’s late rally, as a 3-pointer by guard Aari Mcdonald with 3:35 to play pulled the Wildcats to within 5150.
Stanford’s Haley Jones converted a three-point play on a drive into the paint to push the Cardinal’s lead back to four points, but Mcdonald hit 3 of 4 at the free-throw line after driving to the basket on a pair of fast breaks, trimming the margin to 54-53 with 36.6 seconds remaining.
After a shot-clock violation gave Arizona the ball with 6.1 seconds to play, the Wildcats inbounded to Mcdonald, who was swarmed by a trio of Cardinal defenders and forced into a fadeaway 3-pointer that clanged off iron as the buzzer sounded.
“We just knew we had 15 seconds left in the entire season, so we couldn’t leave anything we want regrets with at the end of the day,” Jones said. “We left it out on the floor, we gave what we had, we talked, we communicated, and it was just a team effort. We showed how much heart we have.”
The stifling defense on the final possession was emblematic of Stanford’s performance throughout the game, as Arizona shot just 28.8 percent. The Cardinal also built a 47-29 advantage on the boards, winning despite posting a season high with 21 turnovers.
Haley Jones scored a team-high 17 points with eight rebounds, while Lexie Hull netted 10 points with 10 boards and Cameron Brink added 10 points. Kiana Williams, a Wagner grad, finished with five points.
Mcdonald scored a game-high 22 for Arizona on 5-for-20 shooting, while Shaina Pellington scored 15 on 5-of-12 shooting.
Stanford scored 12 unanswered points to jump out to a 14-3 lead about midway through the first quarter. Though the Cardinal offense went cold, they continued to play stifling defense, holding Arizona to just 15.8 percent shooting in the first quarter to end the period leading 16-8.
Arizona opened the second quarter with back-to-back baskets from Cate Reese to cut the margin to four points, then poked ahead when Pellington jumped in front of a pass and scored a breakaway layup for a 21-20 advantage midway through the period.
Stanford was quick to respond, ripping off a run of 11 straight points highlighted by a four-point play from Hull and capped with a 3 from Anna Wilson for a 31-21 advantage. The Wildcats scored the final three points of the half to cut the margin to 31-24 in the Cardinal’s favor at halftime.
Stanford matched its largest lead of the night at 11 points early in the third quarter, but Arizona scored seven straight points late in the period to cut the deficit to three points. The Cardinal entered the fourth quarter leading 43-40.
Stanford scored the first six points of the final period to stretch the advantage back to nine, but Arizona continued to counterpunch, trimming the margin to five points about midway through the period.
Sunday’s final capped a stretch of 63 games during the past two weeks in the San Antonio area, with the entire NCAA Tournament field isolated in downtown hotels to create a controlled environment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arizona became the first team seeded outside the top two to advance to the Final Four since 2016, reaching the sport’s biggest stage for the first time in program history. Before this season, the Wildcats’ deepest run in the NCAA Tournament was a Sweet 16 berth in 1998.
Fifth-year coach Adia Barnes, whose team finished 6-24 just three seasons ago, led Arizona to double-digit NCAA Tournament wins against No. 2 seed Texas A&M, No. 4 seed Indiana and No. 1 seed Connecticut, an 11-time national champion.
Stanford, the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, trailed by as many as 13 points during the third quarter of its Elite Eight matchup against No. 2 seed Louisville before storming back to win 78-63. The Cardinal extended their winning streak to 19 games in the Final Four against No. 1 seed South Carolina, surviving a pair of close-range attempts by the Gamecocks in the closing seconds to prevail 66-65.
The Cardinal reached 10 Final Fours and two title games in the 29 years between their last championship and this season’s breakthrough. Stanford became the fourth program to win three or more national titles, joining Baylor (three), Tennessee (eight) and Connecticut (11).
The Pac-12 programs were meeting for the third time this season, with Stanford defeating Arizona 81-54 on Jan. 1 and 62-48 on Feb. 22.