SAN ANTONIO – With the phenomenon of Paie Bueckers in his first field, UConn had an advantage in almost every game he played this season.
Then came her match with Arizona in the women’s Four finals. Arizona suffocated Bueckers, making it almost impossible for him to get an open shot. When he did, he left.
Huskies, number 1, failed to get anything offensive and went most of the game. Despite a late rise in the fourth quarter, they simply didn’t have enough to come back to a stunning 69-59 loss to the Wildcats on Friday night.
Bueckers finished with 18 quiet points at 5-of-13 in the last game of her first year.
The performance was surprising from a UConn team that lost only one game all season – in January to Arkansas. The Huskies have now lost in four consecutive semifinals of the Final Four.
It was Arizona’s first win against a No. 1 team. 1 ranked on AP, and now Wildcats are advancing to the first national championship game in the history of the program. On Sunday, they will face rival Pac-12 Stanford in the title match. It is the first time that Pac-12 has two teams facing each other in the championship game.
Arizona coach Adia Barnes, who played for Arizona, did a remarkable job around a Wildcats program that doesn’t have the same history or tradition as UConn and coach Geno Auriemma in his 21st Final Four. But the Wildcats took him to the Huskies as if he were the veterans’ team and did so behind their veteran leader Aari McDonald, who was clutched not only Friday night with 26 points, but throughout the NCAA tournament.
It seemed clear from the start that Arizona wanted to send a message. Maybe that had something to do with being left out of a promotional video for the women’s Final Four. Maybe the wild cats just wanted to show that a new program had arrived to take center stage. Either way, Arizona completely blocked UConn, making it impossible to look easy.
In the first half alone, Arizona challenged 15 of UConn’s 25 goal attempts and kept the Huskies from shooting 3 of 15 in those attempts. In the entire game, UConn was only 6 out of 31 in the contested photos, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Layups didn’t go in, and Bueckers quickly became a nonfactor, only Christyn Williams kept UConn in the game in the first half. However, the Huskies followed with 10 at the break, after finishing the first half with more turnover (nine) than field goals (eight).
Bueckers and UConn were a team that can warm up at any time. Led into the game, Bueckers scored a total of 90 points in the NCAA tournament. But the shots remained elusive, and Arizona continued their relentless pressure, playing with confidence that didn’t suggest for a minute that it was the first time they had played in the Final Four.
In three quarters, UConn had 39 points – the fewest of its quarters were implemented in the 2015-16 season. However, the Huskies made a push late in the fourth quarter, narrowing the gap to 60-55 with 1:23 remaining, bringing the crowd inside Alamodome to their feet. Would this be the race everyone expected to see from the fast-charging huskies usually?
No, it wouldn’t be.
Now UConn will have to wait another year to try to win its first national championship in 2016. As Arizona moves on, trying to make history.