SAN ANTONIO – Everyone knew who would get the ball in the last possession, with one more game to go to win the 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship.
The only question in the air at the Alamodome was whether Arizona security guard Aari McDonald would do that really make the shot. With Stanford leading the way 54-53, the fans in the dome were all full of anticipation. An Arizona red man turned to a nearby police officer and said, “Look, they’re going to get Aari’s ball off a screen.”
When Arizona guard Shaina Pellington got the ball in with 6.1 seconds to go and a national championship shot on the line, the Stanford defense was ready and immediately denied the on-screen Wildcats they had set.
In the end, Pellington got her window to McDonald, but the timing was wrong and the ball went high. But even when Stanford’s Anna Wilson choked her, McDonald caught it. McDonald dribbled forward, looking for an opening. But Lexie Hull and Cameron Brink joined in, a formidable 3-to-1 front that forced McDonald to back off and turn to shoot, with 1 second to go.
Miraculously, she looked pretty good. McDonald fell backward after releasing the ball, but her eyes remained up. Everyone held their breath. “It was the longest second,” said Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer.
I was like, ‘Oh please God, don’t go in,’ Stanford security guard Haley Jones said. ‘You never know. She’s taking some wild photos because she’s so great. ‘
“I took a hard, disputed photo and it didn’t fall,” McDonald said afterwards, holding back tears. “That’s what I remember.”
The shot hit the back of the rim and Stanford won its first national championship in 29 years. Arizona, which played in the first national championship game in school history, was left with the ultimate what-if. McDonald was on her back after the last buzzer sounded before Pellington came to pick her up.
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Stanford’s defense holds up to the last possession as Aari McDonald misses the winning shot and the Cardinal gets away with a 54-53 victory.
The next person there was Arizona coach Adia Barnes, who put her arm around McDonald and squeezed hard. While Barnes called for the rest of her team, McDonald put her head down, bit her lip, and leaned forward, hands on knees as her teammates passed by.
This was it for her, after such a remarkable NCAA tournament run. Stanford harassed her all night, but she still carried her team to the end – the Wildcats wanted back when it seemed like all hope was lost multiple times during the game.
Barnes made sure McDonald got that last chance.
“It was going to be Aari or something,” Barnes said. “I knew she was going to be doubled, but running a screen was the best option. We knew she would catch it on the three-point line. That’s what happened. But they very well turned us down after the screen. us to catch the ball very high. When Aari started riding, there was plenty of time. We work on that in practice with special situations, she was almost triple teamed and couldn’t go downhill.
“At that point we sat on Aari’s back for the entire tournament. She has to take that shot. I have to put the ball in her hands in that situation, because she is one of the reasons why we are here.”
What made Arizona’s unexpected tournament so much fun to watch was the joy and fearlessness McDonald brought to every game. She scored 20 or more points in every game except one – in the second round against BYU.
When Arizona needed her most, she came through – with 31 points in the first upset that pulled the Wildcats into the tournament against Texas A&M in the Sweet 16, then 26 in the stunning Final Four win over No. 1 seed UConn.
All eyes would be on her on the way to the championship game. Being in the same conference, Stanford had done a great job defensively in their two previous matchups, keeping her at a combined 11-of-43 in those first two encounters. Wilson got the call from McDonald again, and the game plan seemed – at least in the beginning – to keep her from going left.
The strategy worked, as McDonald shot shot after shot, missing more than she had on this tournament run. At half time, she was 2 of 11, with five points, and 1 of 9 for disputed shots.
“With Anna Wilson with me, they jump into everything, which just makes it a little bit difficult for me,” McDonald said. “I would say it was pretty much the same [as the first two meetings]This time only more physical. “
VanDerveer said the physicality was part of the mindset she wanted her entire team to bring into play, noting how physical Stanford’s games against Louisville and South Carolina were during the tournament. To win, she told the cardinal, they had to be grimmer and more physical.
“They never gave [McDonald] space, “said Barnes.” She was just maneuvering and finding ways to go downhill. But many appear in the paint. Every time she went downhill, there were marks in the paint or weak help. [It’s] very difficult when we are in the half lane because there is a lot of attention for Aari. They forced her into hard shots.
“The reality is she’s been making those tough shots for the last few games. We’ve made a lot of fast shots that were hard, a lot of off-balance shots, but they just didn’t hit. Very hard to shoot 29% and win a national championship match. We had to drop some more shots. “
Although McDonald was out of her game, she went ahead and eventually helped Arizona get back into the game after it was 9 points behind with 7:30 left. She hit a pull-up 3 to close the gap to five. Then another 3 closed the gap to 1 with 3:35 more. With that 3 pointer, McDonald tied the NCAA record for most 3s in one tournament with 22.
Arizona went to her and she made mistakes on subsequent possessions – she hit 3 of the 4 free throws to close the gap to 54-53 with 36.6 seconds to go. When Stanford couldn’t get a shot on his last possession, the stage was set for McDonald.
But she just couldn’t get the shot. McDonald finished 5 of 21 for 22 points. Four of those field goals were three-pointers. After Barnes found McDonald on the ground while Stanford feasted around them, she told her star player to lift her head, trust her game on the game, that the Wildcats should be proud of how much they accomplished.
“We are very proud to walk out of here,” said McDonald. “We have nothing to hang our heads. We have fought. We have fought. We have just lost to a great team, an experienced team with talented players in all positions. They are led by a pioneer in the game. We watch. just to the positives. Look how far we’ve come. “