Pickering’s Shaina Pellington hoping to lead Arizona back to the NCAA Championship Final

Twenty-eight men and 20 women will be participating in this year’s March Madness basketball championships in the U.S., but perhaps none so impactful as that of Shaina Pellington of Pickering.

Pellington, a senior 5’8” guard with the Arizona Wildcats, will lead her squad into action tomorrow in Greensboro, North Carolina against the UNLV Running Rebels in the hopes of accomplishing this year what her school came so agonizingly close to accomplishing last season – win it all.

Arizona, with Pellington scoring 15 points and adding seven rebounds and three steals, lost to Stanford by one point in a thrilling 2021 NCAA championship final.

Pellington averaged 10.9 points per game this season – second on the team – and played in all 27 games last year in what was a redshirt junior season for her after sitting out the previous year to meet NCAA transfer requirements.

Pellington took advantage of her down time, representing Canada in an Olympic qualifying tournament and later played in all three games coming off the bench for Canada in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which was held in 2021.

She played the previous two seasons with Oklahoma, winning Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 2017-18.

Pellington’s international pedigree also includes being a member of the junior women’s National Team that placed third at the U19 FIBA World Cup and she played in the U17 World Championships, finishing seventh. She also played for Canada at the U16 FIBA Americas in 2015, helping the team to their first ever gold medal and was a member of Team Ontario that won gold at the Canadian championships.

This year’s Final Four will take place at the Caesar’s Superdome in New Orleans, beginning on April 1 for the women’s tournament and April 2 for the men’s tournament.

Toronto’s Alyssa Jerome won an NCAA Championship with Stanford in 2021, while a Canadian man has not won an NCAA title since Kyle Wiltjer with Kentucky in 2012.