A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
VOLLEYBALL
NCAA WOMEN’S: CHAMPIONSHIP
Ducks return to
NCAA Tournament
No. 1 Stanford 54, No. 3 Arizona 53
NAIL-BITER
Arizona guard Aari McDonald (2) watches after missing a last-second shot at the end of the women’s national championship game against Stanford on Sunday at the Alamodome
in San Antonio. McDonald led all scorers with 22 points, but Stanford prevailed 54-53. Morry Gash/AP
Cardinal and coach Tara VanDerveer win their first national championship in 29 years
BY DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
AN ANTONIO — Tara VanDerveer
hugged each of her Stanford play-
ers as they climbed the ladder to
cut down the nets, capping a taxing
whirlwind journey and ending an exhaustive
championship drought for the Cardinal.
After 29 years overall and including hav-
ing to be on the road for 10 weeks this sea-
son because of the coronavirus, VanDerveer
and the Cardinal are NCAA women’s basket-
ball champions again.
Haley Jones scored 17 points and Stanford
beat Arizona 54-53, giving the Cardinal and
their Hall of Fame coach their first national
championship in 29 years on Sunday night.
“Getting through all the things we got
through, we’re excited to win the COVID
S
Most NCAA Women’s
Basketball Championships
11 — Connecticut
8 — Tennessee
3 — Baylor
3 — Stanford
2 — Louisiana Tech
2 — Notre Dame
2 — Southern Cal
championship,” VanDerveer said. ”The other
one was not quite as close, the last one. But
we’re really excited. No one knows the score,
no one knows who scored, it’s a national
championship.”
It wasn’t a masterpiece by any stretch with
both teams struggling to score and miss-
ing easy layups and shots, but Stanford did
NCAA MEN’S: CHAMPIONSHIP
just enough to pull off the win — it’s second
straight by a point.
Stanford (31-2) built a nine-point lead in
the fourth quarter before Arizona (21-6) cut
it to 51-50 on star guard Aari McDonald’s
3-pointer.
After a timeout, Jones answered with a
three-point play with 2:24 left. That would
be Stanford’s last basket of the game. Mc-
Donald got the Wildcats with 54-53 with
36.6 seconds left converting three of four
free throws.
“I just owe it all to my teammates, they
have confidence in me when I don’t have
confidence in myself,” said Jones, who was
honored as the tournament’s Most Out-
standing Player. “I saw they needed me to
come up big and I did.”
— The Register-Guard
GOLF
Spieth ends his
drought in Texas
See NCAA Women’s / A6
No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 1 Baylor, 6:20 p.m. Monday (CBS)
Gonzaga’s last hurdles: Quick turnaround, Baylor
BY EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
I
NDIANAPOLIS — Now comes
the hard part for Gonzaga.
Less than 16 hours after walk-
ing off the floor with one of the most
scintillating wins in the game’s history,
the barely-still-undefeated Bulldogs
returned to the practice court Sunday
to get ready for the national champi-
onship game.
Their opponent, Baylor, is rested,
ready and waiting for a challenge.
The meeting Monday is one most
hoops fans have waited for all year —
two years, really — a matchup between
two teams who have been on a colli-
sion course since the bracket came out.
No need for extra motivation here.
But how do the Zags move on after
THAT?
“It’s a lot in 30 hours, but it is what
it is,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said.
“My guys have been great at game
preparations all season, so consistent
with effort and the attention to de-
tail on game night. So, we’re definitely
banking on that.”
To recap, Jalen Suggs banked in a
shot from a step inside the midcourt
line at the buzzer to lift the Zags to a
93-90 overtime victory over UCLA.
The game ended after 11 p.m. Satur-
day.
By the time that happened, Baylor
(27-2) was back at the hotel.
“We were probably like everyone
else on the eighth floor of the hotel,”
Baylor coach Scott Drew said of the
reaction to The Shot. “Pandemonium
erupted.”
The Bears rolled over Houston 78-
59 and, suddenly, they look every bit as
unbeatable as the unbeaten Bulldogs
(31-0). No team has come closer than
nine points of Baylor over the three
weeks in Indianapolis.
See NCAA Men’s / A6
Oregon volleyball
is heading back to the
NCAA Tournament, and
the Ducks will get to ease
their way into the post-
season.
Oregon, which had
an eight-season post-
season streak ended in
2019, earned one of 18
at-large berths and the
No. 10 overall seed when
the field of 48 was an-
nounced Sunday after-
noon.
As a top-16 seed, Or-
egon (14-4) will get a
first-round bye when the
tournament takes place
in Omaha, Nebraska, be-
tween April 14-24. The
Ducks’ first match will be
at 9 a.m. April 15 against
the winner of Notre
Dame-Army.
“Excited for the team,”
coach Matt Ulmer said.
“They’ve worked so hard
and we’ve come a long
way since the last time
we were in the tourna-
ment in 2018. ... They’ve
positioned themselves to
make a run. I really love
the group and am excited
to go do this with them.”
The top four seeds are
No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 2
Kentucky, No. 3 Minne-
sota and No. 4 Texas.
The Pac-12, which had
the second-most teams
selected, also will be rep-
resented by conference
champion No. 6 Wash-
ington, No. 14 Utah, No.
15 Washington State and
UCLA.
Playing a confer-
ence-only schedule, the
Ducks went 3-3 against
those tournament teams
this season, splitting two-
match series against the
Huskies, Cougars and Bru-
ins. The original schedule
had Oregon playing 22
matches but four were
canceled — two each
against Utah and Stan-
ford — due to COVID-19.
Still, the Ducks fin-
ished the season in sec-
ond place in the Pac-12,
matching the program’s
highest finish. Their 14
conference wins are tied
for the second-most in a
season in program his-
tory.
Michael Conroy/AP
Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs (1) shoots a 3-pointer from just inside half-court over UCLA
guard David Singleton (34) to win the game during overtime in the NCAA Final Four
semifinal on Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Gonzaga won 93-90.
Jordan Spieth tapped
in for par to win the Brit-
ish Open for his third
major and 11th victory in
just five years on the PGA
Tour. He never imagined
he would go 1,351 days
before he felt that way
again.
He went 82 events on
tour without winning.
Once the No. 1 player, he
was headed out of the
top 100 in the world.
And now he’s back.
Spieth ended a mys-
tifying slump Sunday
by giving himself birdie
chances and making
most of them, closing
with a 6-under 66 to hold
off Charley Hoffman for
a two-shot victory in the
Valero Texas Open.
“There’s peaks and
valleys in this sport, but I
never expected to go this
long,” Spieth said. “Back
then, in between wins,
maybe I took things more
for granted than I should
have. It’s very difficult to
win out here and I’ll cer-
tainly enjoy this one as
much as I have any other.”
The only surprise was
that he figured he would
be more emotional. He
was too busy holding off
a spirited run by Hoffman,
who went from a three-
shot deficit with six holes
to play to one shot be-
hind. Spieth all but sealed
it with a wedge to a back
pin to 5 feet for birdie.
— Associated Press