The Wildcats believed all season long.
Saturday was their chance to do what no other Arizona team had done in the history of the program. And no one was going to get in their way.
Behind their elite defense that stymied a much bigger Texas A&M team and their star, Aari McDonald, there was no stopping Arizona on this night. McDonald scored 31 points, 19 coming in the first half, as the third-seeded Wildcats crushed second-seeded Texas A&M 74-59 at the Alamodome Saturday in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
“I wasn’t surprised I was scoring,” McDonald said. “I was feeling it, and I would say I had the green light.”
Aari for 👌!90 straight games in double figures pic.twitter.com/UsQCJB5BQU
— The Wildcaster (@TheWildcaster) March 28, 2021
The Wildcats move onto play fourth-seeded Indiana in Monday’s Elite Eight. The Hoosiers opened play Saturday by stunning No. 1 North Carolina State. Saturday marked the first time UA has beaten Texas A&M since 1997.
“We’re ready to make more history,” McDonald said. “The sky is the limit. We want to get to the championship game.”
McDonald said that she heard some talk that Arizona was going to get smacked against Texas A&M.
She took that personally — and so did her teammates. The result: the Wildcats played their best 40 minutes of the season.
McDonald was the only Wildcat to score in double figures, but veterans Sam Thomas and Cate Reese stepped up in other ways. Thomas finished with nine points — all of them coming on 3-pointers — and four assists. Reese had eight points, nine rebounds and two assists. Bendu Yeaney added seven points, four assists and two rebounds.
The Wildcats shot 45.9% from the floor, and — even more impressively — 44.8% from 3-point range.
Saturday’s win extends one of the most memorable seasons in Arizona history.
The Wildcats finished second in the Pac-12 and won 13 league games for the first time since the 2003-04 season. They were ranked in the Top 12 since the preseason and for 13 of the 17 weekly polls, in the Top 10 — tying a school record for most weeks in the Top 10.
Arizona hit accomplishment after accomplishment:
• Beating a Top 10 team when they were a Top 10 team — UCLA — in the first league game of the season.
• Sweeping Utah and Colorado on the road for the first time in program history.
• Holding Cal to 33 points — the fewest any Pac-12 team has scored on UA.
• Sweeping Oregon for the first time in a decade.
McDonald picked up more honors —All-American, Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. She led the league in scoring and steals — for her third straight year and scored in double-figures in every game.
And yet the Wildcats knew they’d be defined by how they played in March.
Arizona opened the NCAA Tournament with a runaway win over Stony Brook, then edged BYU in the round of 32, setting up a showdown with an imposing Texas A&M team.
Using pressure defense, Arizona overcame an early deficit and led at the half. The Wildcats continued to pull away in the third quarter.
McDonald hit the dagger — a 3 that bounced up in the cylinder before dropping — with 1:03 left in the third quarter to give UA a 58-44 lead. She hit 6 of her 12 attempts from beyond the 3-point line.
It wasn’t just McDonald. Four other Wildcats — Thomas, Reese, Helena Pueyo and Bendu Yeaney — hit three-pointers, their largest long-range output of the season.
Arizona dominated in the paint, too, scoring 26 points inside.
Given who they were playing, it was impressive. Texas A&M came into the game averaging 76 points per game and shooting 37% from 3-point range.
Arizona turned Texas A&M over 19 times and turned that into 28 points, while UA only had eight turnovers which gave the Aggies two points. The Aggies hit just two 3-pointers.
In that third quarter, the Wildcats were even more locked in as Thomas picked up another block and Reese scored on the other end on a layup.
A home-run pass on an inbounds play by Texas A&M didn’t catch the Wildcats sleeping as Helena Pueyo chased down the Aggie and swatted the ball.
Thomas had five of Arizona’s 12 steals , putting her into third place in Arizona history with 14 steals in the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona was relentless from the beginning. In the first quarter, the Wildcats forced a turnover and Reese hit a 3 from the top of the key to cut A&M’s lead to 10-7. McDonald picked a steal and scored on a layup the very next possession.
Then it was trading baskets back and forth with McDonald scoring the last two baskets of the frame — on a runner and another layup — to finish down by two, 19-17.
Arizona took its first lead of the half with put back by Trinity Baptiste and she drew a foul at the 8:29 mark. Arizona was up 20-19. It was the start of an 8-0 run, extending the lead to 27-19. McDonald hit a 3-pointer and Shaina Pellington hit a long-two just inside the three-point line in the corner.
The Aggies came roaring back on a run of their own, hitting four straight shots. Barnes called a timeout with 3:09 left in the half and McDonald went to work hitting a 3-pointer in the corner and then in another highlight-reel moment, she orchestrated a crossover inside the paint and threw it up as she fell on her knees shot that was good — and drew the foul.
