SAN ANTONIO – With first-year phenomenon Paige Bueckers in his backfield, UConn has a lead in almost every game he has played this season.
Then came the game against Arizona in the Final Four for women. Arizona suffocated Bueckers, making it nearly impossible for her to get an open shot. When she did, she was gone.
The No. 1 seeded Huskies could not get anything offensive going and left behind almost the entire game. Despite a late boom in the fourth quarter, they simply did not have enough to return Friday night in a stunning 69-59 loss to the Wildcats.
Bueckers finished with a quiet 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting in the final game of her freshman year.
The performance was surprising from a UConn team that lost just one game all season – to Arkansas in January. The Huskies have now lost in the four final semifinals in the Finals.
It was the first victory in Arizona against a team that finished first in the AP, and now the Wildcats are advancing to the first national championship game in program history. They will face Pac-12 rival Stanford in the national championship game on Sunday. This is the first time the Pac-12 has tackled two teams in the championship game.
Arizona coach Adia Barnes, who played in Arizona, did a remarkable job in a Wildcats program that does not have the same history or tradition as UConn and coach Geno Auriemma, in his 21st Final Four. But they took it to the Huskies as if they were the veteran team, and they did so behind their veteran leader Aari McDonald, who was not only 26 points on Friday night, but throughout the NCAA Tournament as well.
It seems from the start that Arizona wants to deliver a message. Maybe it had something to do with the omission of a promotional video for the Final Four for women. Maybe it just wanted to show that a new program has arrived to take center stage. Either way, Arizona has completely shut down UConn, making the impossible seem easy.
In the first half alone, Arizona contested 15 of UConn’s 25 field goal attempts, keeping the Huskies on 3-of-15 shooting. Throughout the game, UConn was just 6-out-31 on contested shots, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Layouts were not busy, and with Bueckers quickly becoming a non-factor, only Christyn Williams kept UConn in the first half of the game. Still, the Huskies trailed by 10 points at halftime despite the first half with more turnover (nine) than field goals (eight).
Bueckers and UConn were a team that could get hot at any moment. In the game, Bueckers played 90 points in the NCAA Tournament. But the shots remained elusive, and Arizona continued with its relentless pressure and with the confidence of a team that suggested it would not play in the Final Four for a minute for the first time.
Through three quarters, UConn had 39 points – the least since quarters were implemented in the 2015-16 season. Still, the Huskies made a push late in the fourth quarter, narrowing the gap by 1:23 over to 60-55, bringing the crowd inside the Alamodome to their feet. Would this be the run that everyone expects from the Huskies who usually charge fast?
No, it would not.
Now UConn will have to wait another year to win its first national championship since 2016. As Arizona moves on, in an effort to make its own history.