The Arizona women's basketball team finally put the pieces together.

In a season of ups and downs that began with a 10-0 start and ended without being invited to the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats finished where they wanted to - cutting down the nets on Saturday night as they captured their first-ever postseason title by winning the National Women's Invitational Tournament in Amarillo, Texas.

Arizona defeated Northwestern 79-63 to win the title and improve their record to 22-8 on the season. They went a perfect 12-0 in non-conference play on the year, including wins over Western Kentucky and Arkansas earlier in the tournament.

"I think this was a huge step for our program and something that we can build on," Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini said. "We may have been snubbed a bit by the NCAA selection committee, but we proved that we belonged in the tournament. Cutting down the net was the sweetest part because that is the mark of a champion."

UA sophomore forward Adia Barnes and senior Brenda Pantoja were both named to the All-Tournament team, with Barnes capturing the tournament MVP. Barnes scored 65 points in her three tournament games. Against Northwestern she scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds.

"It feels great to be named MVP, but it feels even better just to win," Barnes said. "Being MVP was just an extra plus for what we accomplished as a team. Our motto this season was putting the pieces together, I think we added a few new pieces to our puzzle."

Pantoja, the nation's leader in assists, scored 16 points against Northwestern and added 13 assists. She hit 5-of-10 3-pointers in the game.

Arizona also got big contributions from senior Andrea Constand, who finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, and junior center Jacque Clark, who added a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Northwestern was led by guards Megan Chawansky and Michele Ratay who each finished with 19 points.

"I wanted our players to realize that this was their opportunity to prove something," Bonvicini said. "Some of the other coaches came in bitter because they hadn't made the tournament. We came in wanting to win."

The Wildcats entered the tournament saying that they had something to prove. After being passed over by the NCAA selection committee on March 10, Arizona players felt that they had to have a good showing in the NWIT to show that they belonged in the NCAAs.

"It was really exciting and satisfying," Barnes said. "We went in there and accomplished our goals."

It was an up-hill battle all the way for the Wildcats as they entered the tournament as the fifth-seeded team. Arizona defeated fourth-seeded Western Kentucky 80-72 on Thursday and top-seed Arkansas 80-77 on Friday before winning the title over the second-seeded Wildcats from the Big Ten Conference.

Arizona seemed to be hitting on all cylinders in their win against Northwestern. Arizona took an early lead in the game after hitting three-straight 3-pointers and finishing with a three-point play by Barnes to take a 24-15 lead. Another 12-3 run with 5:14 seconds left in the first half gave the Wildcats a 36-19 lead that they would never relinquish.

Arizona held its largest lead, 63-38, on a Pantoja trey with 9:16 left in the game. Northwestern was able to cut that lead to 65-52 after a 14-2 run, but Arizona pulled away for the win.

"I thought our athletic ability would wear them down and it did," Bonvicini said. "These are the kinds of teams that the NCAA Tournament committee wanted us to beat to get in. We came in here and proved that we could do that."