The California women managed to overcome conference rival Arizona and all the adversity that came with a pandemic season.
BY MIGUEL ENRÍQUEZ
In sports, the stories of the small teams that come from behind are always attractive. On this occasion it was the turn of Stanford University, who managed to lift the title of women's basketball champions in the NCAA after beating Arizona by 54-53 in the Final Four final last Sunday.
The champions were able to put an end to the malaria that had plagued the institution, as they had not won the valuable title for 29 years and after playing this season for 10 weeks away from home due to the blow that represented the Covid-19 pandemic in California.
The big star of the night was Haley Jones, player who scored 17 points in the game against Arizona at the Alamodome, the home stadium of the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA where all the finals of the category were played. The end of the game had dramatic overtones when Stanford was nine points ahead and were caught on the scoreboard by star point guard Aari McDonald, who made a basket from the three-point line and put the game within one point.
Sunday's game had the peculiarity of bringing together for the first time in the history of a Final Four final the Pac-12 conference rivals, in addition to consecrate for the third time the coach Tara VenDerveer, who had already won in 1990 and 1992.but this is the first one with the Cardinal.
The 67-year-old coach, who will go down in history as one of the best in her field, matched Baylor's Kim Mulkey as the three-time winner of the crown, but a major distinction for the Stanford native is that no one had won a championship with the institution in 29 years and with a record of 31 wins and only two losses.
Finally, it is curious that several California teams lifted this year the maximum title of their sport and broke droughts as now the Cardinal; in the NBA Los Angeles Lakers the Association's Larry O'Brien trophy after 11 years without a trophy, while in the MLB, Los Angeles Dodgers also cut short a 32-year wait without a World Series win when they beat the Tampa Bay Rays in October.
