In a season in which Stanford was forced to spend 63 straight days on road, to travel more than 7,500 miles during that span and to sleep in hotels for 86 nights, the Cardinal claimed its first national championship in 29 years with a 54-53 victory over Arizona.

The Wildcats had the ball with 6.1 seconds left and inbounded it to their leading scorer Aari McDonald, who averaged 30 per game over their last three games. She drew three Cardinal defenders and tossed up a heave from the top of the key that clanked off the back of the rim as time expired.

“We knew we had 15 seconds left in the entire season, so we couldn’t leave anything that we would have regrets with at the end of the day,” the tournament’s most outstanding player Haley Jones told ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “We left it all on the floor. We gave it what we had; we talked; we communicated. It was just a team effort. We just showed how much heart we have, how much passion we have and how much grit we have.”

It was a game full of runs. Stanford jumped out to a 16-5 lead before Arizona countered with a 16-4 run of its own to take a 21-20 lead. The Cardinal followed with the next 11 points of the game and led 31-24 at halftime.

The Wildcats reeled off seven straight points late in the third to pull within three entering the final stanza. Stanford extended the lead back to nine early in the fourth before Arizona pulled within one in the final minutes.

“It doesn’t ever come down to the last shot,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. “It comes down to the missed free throws down the stretch. It comes down to the foul on the 3-point shot. It comes down to getting the turnovers and not converting. Obviously, it stings pretty bad.”

The Cardinal won the rebounding battle 47-29 and held an 11-0 edge in second-chance points in addition to outscoring the Wildcats by 16 in the paint. Stanford knocked down four 3-pointers, all in the first half, and finished the tournament with 59 – the most by a team in a single tourney. Despite turning the ball over 21 times, Stanford held Arizona to 29% shooting for the game.

Jones, a sophomore who saw her rookie campaign cut short due to injury and the Covid pandemic, notched a team-high 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting and eight rebounds.

“What she has done is really amazing,” Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “She was a go-to player down the stretch; there’s no two ways about it. When we wanted a basket, we went to Haley, and she delivered. A young player like that, she really stepped up. What you see with Haley is the tip of the iceberg.”

Lexie Hull had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double, and Cameron Brink also scored 10 points.

For Arizona, McDonald poured in 22 points, 17 of which came in the second half. She was limited to just five points on 2-of-11 shooting in the first two quarters. Shaina Pellington was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 15 points and seven rebounds.

“I’m just really proud of my teammates,” said a teary McDonald, who scored in double figures in 93 consecutive games. “It’s not about how you start. It’s about how you finish. Although we didn’t get the outcome we wanted, I’m just proud of my teammates. It should motivate them coming into next year, just momentum coming off what we did. The sky’s the limit. I’m excited for what we accomplished this year in so little time, especially in this weird year. I’m very thankful.”

The Cardinal is the first team in the history of both the in men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament to win both semifinal and final games by a single point.

VanDerveer is the fourth women’s basketball coach to win three titles and joins Geno Auriemma (11 titles), Pat Summitt (eight) and Kim Mulkey (three) in that club. Her gap of 29 years between championships is the longest drought for any men’s or women’s coach and is 12 more than the next longest (Muffet McGraw and Rick Pitino). Earlier this season, VanDerveer passed Summitt for the record for all-time career wins.