Haley Jones had 17 points and eight rebounds Sunday night, and the Stanford Cardinal held off a last second game winning shot attempt by the Arizona Wildcats to win the 2021 Women’s College Basketball National Championship game 54-53 in San Antonio, Texas. It is the first title since 1992 for Stanford (third overall), and it was the first ever trip to the Final Four or championship game for Arizona.
Stanford (31-2), the #1 overall seed, finishes the season with 20 straight wins and ends up beating Arizona in all three matchups this year between the two teams. The Wildcats had a very early lead 3-2, before the Cardinal went on a 12-0 run and had a pair of 11 point first quarter leads. Shaina Pellington gave Arizona back the advantage one more time in the second quarter with a layup to make it 21-20. Stanford took control though for a 31-24 halftime lead, finishing the second on a 11-3 spurt.
The Cardinal would build the lead to 11 again in the third quarter, but the Wildcats hung in and would cut it 43-40 headed to the fourth. Arizona (21-6) would slice it to just a single point on a three-pointer by Aari McDonald with 3:35 to play. McDonald hit 1-2 from the line to make it 54-51, after Stanford had pushed their advantage back to four, then hit two more from the charity stripe with 36 seconds left to again make it a one point deficit. A shot clock violation on the Cardinal next possession would give the Wildcats one more chance with 6.1 seconds remaining. Arizona got the ball to McDonald, who was defended closely at the top of the key, and would fire up an off balance three-pointer that hit off the back rim no good as time expired.
McDonald led the #3 seed Arizona Wildcats with 22 points, hitting 4-9 from three-point range. Pellington added 15 points and seven rebounds. Lexie Hull had 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Cameron Brink had 10 points, six rebounds, and three blocked shots as the other double digit scorers along with Jones for Stanford.
