5’7 Stanford Star’s Controversial Foul on Arizona Wildcats’ Jada Williams Leaves NCAA Fans Divided

The Arizona Wildcats battled it out against the Stanford Cardinal on Friday. The game had both the teams dominating turn by turn which gave a lot of surprises for the fans. Another moment from the game other than the exceptional display that caught everyone’s eye was the foul by Stanford sophomore.

The highlighted moment is from the fourth quarter with 2:14 minutes left. Cardinal were stationed at 59 points whereas Wildcats were inching closer with 57. And the next few moves grabbed a lot of eyeballs.

Wildcats guard Courtney Blakely was running towards the opponent’s basket during transition offense and made a layup that helped the team level the score 59-59. The ball was with Stanford forward Brooke Demetre and another guard Talana Lepolo was running towards Demetre to get a pass from her. 

Meanwhile, Wildcats guard Jada Williams was running towards the corner when the Lepolo collided with her. She instantly fell to the ground in a dash. The referee immediately called for a foul over Lepolo. Thankfully, Williams was fine and resumed the game making a jumper that helped her team get into the lead of 61-59 in the contest.

A video of the foul was uploaded on YouTube which had a lot of fans commenting their take on the foul. The netizens surely looked divided over it. While some mentioned that the foul was unintentional others called it deliberate.

“Looks intentional. Kinda lowered the shoulder,” said one user. Similarly, another one echoed the same sentiments, “looks intentional but i could be wrong 🥴idk 🤷🏾‍♂️”. One also suggested, “So did they call it intentional? That was a solid hit.” While other user went as far as saying that the foul was done premeditated: “It looked like she dipped her shoulder, but I don’t know.”

On the other hand, there were also comments that labelled the foul as accidental. “Definitely a defensive foul.  If she had beat her to the spot,  it would’ve been a full on collision. Instead it was just the shoulder,” mentioned one user. Another one also was of the opinion that “Williams tried to get in front of the other girl . . .and got de-cleated for her trouble.”

Read More: Michael Jordan’s “Rebellion” Displayed Distrust in Patient Phil Jackson in 1990

Another netizen also downplayed the attention being given to it stating “nothing to see here. 2 players who are playing hard. one made contact and the other went down. this sort of thing happens in competitive sports.” While one also thought that both the players were at fault remarking, “Hahaha she sold the hell outta that. Jumped in front of a player running full speed trying to draw the foul. Should’ve been fouls on both players.” Meanwhile, the match resumed and was a nail-biting contest from there on.

How did the game go?

The neck-to-neck competition was once again tied when Cardinal star Kiki Iriafen made a layup. This had both the teams tying at 61. However, Williams once again got back her team in the lead by scoring a three-pointer jumper. While Cardinal then struggled to score, Wildcats smoked 68 points with their opponents resting at 61. The overall game thus went in favor of Wildcats.  

Though there was a foul, nothing could have been better than both the players emerging fit to resume their play. Furthermore, Williams had the time of the night when she finally helped her team cruise to victory by a narrow margin.