Stanford holds off Arizona 54-53 to get women’s NCAA title
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Author
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Tara VanDerveer hugged every of her Stanford players as they climbed the ladder to reduce down the nets, capping a taxing whirlwind journey and ending an exhausting championship drought for the Cardinal.
It took 29 years, that included 10 months on the highway this period for the reason that of the coronavirus, for VanDerveer and the Cardinal to be crowned NCAA women’s basketball champions once again.
“We experienced some specific karma heading for us,” VanDerveer claimed. “Had the comeback in opposition to Louisville, dodge a bullet from South Carolina, dodge bullet towards Arizona. In some cases you have to be blessed. I’ll admit it, we were being pretty privileged to gain.”
Haley Jones scored 17 details and Stanford defeat Arizona 54-53, giving the Cardinal and their Corridor of Fame mentor their first countrywide championship considering the fact that 1992 on Sunday night time.
“Obtaining via all the items we got by means of, we’re enthusiastic to gain the COVID championship,” VanDerveer reported. “The other one particular was not rather as shut, the very last a person. But we’re seriously psyched. No a single appreciates the rating, no one particular is aware who scored, it is really a nationwide championship.”
It was not a masterpiece by any stretch with both equally teams having difficulties to score and missing simple layups and photographs, but Stanford did just plenty of to pull off the earn — it truly is second straight by a level.
Stanford (31-2) built a nine-issue direct in the fourth quarter before Arizona (21-6) lower it to 51-50 on star guard Aari McDonald’s 3-pointer.
Following a timeout, Jones answered with a three-position play with 2:24 left. That would be Stanford’s final basket of the sport. McDonald bought the Wildcats with 54-53 with 36.6 seconds remaining converting three of four free throws.
“I just owe it all to my teammates, they have self confidence in me when I will not have self confidence in myself,” mentioned Jones, who was honored as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Participant. “I saw they desired me to occur up huge and I did.”
The Cardinal, soon after an additional timeout could not even get a shot off, supplying Arizona one past chance with 6.1 seconds left, but McDonald’s contested shot from the major of the essential at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
“I obtained denied hard. I tried using to turn the corner, they sent three at me. I took a challenging, contested shot and it did not drop,” stated McDonald, who fell in close proximity to midcourt, slumped in disbelief even though the Cardinal celebrated.
It can be been rather a journey for VanDerveer and the Cardinal this period. The crew was forced on the street for virtually 10 weeks for the reason that of the coronavirus, paying out 86 times in motels in the course of this nomadic period.
“It was a long, pretty hard journey staying on the highway, sleeping in accommodations, living out of your bag. It’s just a great deal. You’re on the bus, you happen to be on planes all the time and there is just hardly ever definitely an close in sight so it truly is complicated,” Jones mentioned.
“But I imagine from that experience and getting rid of on the highway and dropping 1 at house I feel it just definitely type of grew this excess like chip on our shoulder just about.”
The group did not complain and went about their company and now have yet another NCAA championship. Together the way the Hall of Fame mentor gained her 1,099th career victory to go Pat Summitt for the most all time in women’s basketball record.
Now the 67-yr-aged coach has a third national title to go along with the kinds she won in 1990 and 1992. That moved her into a tie with Baylor’s Kim Mulkey for 3rd most all time driving Geno Auriemma and Summitt.
VanDerveer had a lot of wonderful groups in between titles, which include the types led by Candice Wiggins and the Ogwumike sisters — Nneka and Chiney, but the Cardinal just could not stop their year with that elusive get in the title activity till Sunday evening.
It was the very first women’s basketball championship for the Pac-12 given that VanDerveer and Stanford won the title in 1992. The previous time a group from the meeting was in the title match was 2010 when the Cardinal dropped to UConn. That recreation was also performed in the Alamodome — the web site of every single sport in this tournament from the Sweet 16 by Sunday’s championship activity.
The entire NCAA Event was played in the San Antonio spot mainly because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Stanford had record on its facet, Arizona has been constructing beneath coach Adia Barnes, who was the fourth Black woman to guide her staff to the championship activity, joining Carolyn Peck, Dawn Staley and C. Vivian Stringer. Peck and Staley received titles.
Barnes starred for the Wildcats as a player in the late 90s and arrived again to her alma mater five years in the past. She guided the workforce to the WNIT title in 2019 and led them to their initially NCAA title video game at any time. This was the team’s first look in the NCAA Match since 2005 — even though the Wildcats would have built the NCAAs last period experienced it not been canceled by the coronavirus.
McDonald, who adopted her coach from Washington as a transfer, has been a big reason for the team’s good results. The 5-foot-6 guard struggled against the Cardinal, finishing with 22 factors though likely 5-for-20 from the industry.
The Wildcats were being attempting to be only the fourth team to path by double digits and gain a championship.
These groups met 2 times for the duration of the normal time and Stanford rolled earlier Arizona both equally situations, profitable by double digits in every match.
This 1 came down to a closing prospect for the Wildcats, but they fell just one particular-level shorter.
Tip-INS:
Sunday night’s game was the very first with two teams from west of the Mississippi playing for a title considering that 1986. … No other Division I coach has long gone extra than 20 decades amongst titles. In basketball, the longest gap is 17 a long time for the two the girls (Muffet McGraw, 2001 and 2018 at Notre Dame) and guys (Rick Pitino, 1996 at Kentucky and 2013 at Louisville, while that title was afterwards vacated)
Struggling Towards STANFORD
Barnes has beaten VanDerveer just 2 times in her profession as each a participant and coach at Arizona. She missing seven of 8 actively playing for the Wildcats in the late 90s. The lone victory came in her senior year on a final-next shot off a move from Barnes to teammate Reshea Bristol, who strike a 20-footer for the earn in 1998. As a coach she had shed 10 of the 11 past matchups ahead of Sunday with the only victory coming in extra time on Feb. 28, 2020.
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