⏩ Defense: Grit earns Stanford first championship since 1992.
“We made it a point to crash the Oboards and box out as much as we could on the Dboards.”
Haley Jones, Stanford guard
The Stanford women’s basketball team cut down the nets after winning the national championship Sunday over Arizona.
Truth be told, the NCAA should probably have let the Cardinal take the backboards home with them, too.
Stanford dominated the boards and played grimy defense to hold on for a 5453 victory at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
“Rebounding was a huge emphasis for our team. We got outrebounded by South Carolina (in the semifinals), and that hasn’t really happened a lot this season. We had to get on the glass,” said tournament most outstanding player Haley Jones, who had 17 points and eight rebounds. “Luckily we got on the boards. We made it a point to crash the Oboards and box out as much as we could on the Dboards. It was just an emphasis. It’s been an emphasis the whole season, and especially in this game.”
The Cardinal (312) won their third title and first since 1992 behind an inspired rebounding effort and a great defensive scheme against the tournament’s most productive player, Aari McDonald of Arizona (216).
The Wildcats’ tallest starter is 6foot2 Cate Reese. Stanford countered with 64 Cameron Brink and used rotation players Ashten Prechtel (65), Alyssa Jerome (63), and Francesca Belibi (61). Even the Cardinal wings have great length with Jones and Lexie and Lacie Hull all standing taller than 6foot.
The height advantage and tenacious rebounding efforts showed in the stats. Stanford outrebounded Arizona 4729 and beat the Wildcats on secondchance points (110) and points in the paint (3620).
Arizona had only two players with more than four rebounds. Stanford had six with at least four, including four players with at least six.
Lexie Hull had 10 points and 10 rebounds to add to Jones’ stat line, Prechtel added seven points and eight rebounds, and Brink chipped in 10 points and six rebounds in a game that could have acted as a coaching video for teamwide rebounding fundamentals.
Even as forceful as the Cardinal were on the glass, they still had to play otherworldly defense to lock up the title in the firstever championship game played between two Pac12 schools.
After averaging 30 points in her previous three NCAA Tournament games, McDonald was limited to 22 on 5of20 shooting. A week and a half away from likely becoming a firstround pick in the WNBA Draft, McDonald had just five points on 2of11 shooting in the first half against Stanford’s pristine game plan.
Anna Wilson stalked McDonald all over the court, and when the lefthander got to her favorite spot on the left block, the Cardinal sent a second and third player to swarm her. McDonald finally started making some 3pointers in the second half to turn an 11point game into a nailbiter.
But Stanford’s defense came up big again on the game’s final possession. Down one with six seconds remaining, Arizona inbounded the ball to McDonald, who almost immediately was surrounded by three Cardinal players.
McDonald was forced to loft a turnaround heave at the buzzer, and the shot went awry as Stanford claimed a championship that will be remembered for the grit it took to get through 63 days away from home during the coronavirus pandemic and how that fortitude showed up in rebounding and defense when it mattered most.
“This game was not a pretty game, but it was a gritty game,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “We had to dig in. They’re very athletic. They’re very quick. They’re very fast. At this level, sometimes they really let a lot of physical play go . ... We had to toughen up. We had to dig in. I’m really proud of our team for doing that . ...
“I think our grit and resilience really helped us to get the nets.”