Arizona and Pickering’s Shaina Pellington out of NCAA women’s March Madness

Defending national finalist Arizona’s tournament is over after being outplayed by North Carolina in their women’s March Madness second round match-up, losing 63-45.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats had trouble all game with North Carolina’s relentless full court press and the hot hand Shaina Pellington of Pickering brought with her from the opening round win over UNLV (30 points) went cold Monday as the senior and Canadian National Team member was just 1-for-9 from the field and scored just three points in 28 minutes of action.

The entire team went cold, in fact, shooting just 28.8 per cent from the field in the game. The Wildcats trailed by 11 at the half and 20 at the end of three quarters, with a brief fourth quarter comeback proving to be too little, too late.

North Carolina, meanwhile, used a balanced attack, 41.2 per cent shooting and a suffocating defence to advance to the regional semi-final of the tournament. Kennedy Todd-Williams led all scorers with 19, going 7-for-11 from the field, Deja Kelly added 15 and Alyssa Ustby scored a dozen and added an even dozen rebounds as well.

The Tar Heels will meet top seeded South Carolina on Friday.