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. This time 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, since 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 caused by 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 was caught on the scoreboard by star point guard Aari McDonald, who made a basket from the three-point line to bring the game to 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 consecrating coach Tara VenDerveer, who had already won in 1990 and 1992, for the third time.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 victories and only two defeats.
Finally, it is interesting to note that several California teams won the top title of their sport this year and broke droughts, as the Cardinal did this year. 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 winning the World Series when they defeated the Tampa Bay Rays in October.
