Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes of Gorham and Arizona’a Trinity Baptiste battle for control of a rebound Monday night during an NCAA regional final in San Antonio. Holmes led the Hoosiers with 20 points to go along with eight rebounds and five blocked shots, but Arizona advanced to the Final Four with a 66-53 win. Eric Gay/Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO — Aari McDonald scored 33 points and No. 3 seed Arizona beat No. 4 Indiana 66-53 on Monday night to earn its first trip to the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament.

McDonald, the Pac-12 player of the year, did everything for the Wildcats, from slashing drives to a banked-in 3-pointer. She briefly left the game because of a twisted ankle with 2:35 left, but limped back on and scored six more points. Her three-point play with 34 seconds remaining put the exclamation point on the victory.

Arizona (20-5) advanced to Friday’s national semifinal against top-seeded UConn, which reached its 13th straight Final Four when it beat No. 2 seed Baylor earlier Monday night..

Arizona made consecutive 3-pointers in the middle of the fourth quarter, the latter from Helena Pueyo off a bullet pass from McDonald, for a 57-50 lead in what had been a tight, basket-for-basket game. Pueyo made two 3-pointers in the final quarter.

The Hoosiers never led and went scoreless for nearly four minutes after pulling even at 48-48 in the fourth.

Mackenzie Holmes of Gorham scored 20 points and blocked five shots for Indiana (21-6), which was playing its first Elite Eight game.

The tension of the biggest night in program history for both teams showed early in a timid, ragged start as the first 10 shots misfired before McDonald finally got a short jumper to fall. Once McDonald started heating up, she scored 10 points in carrying the Wildcats to a 14-11 lead to start the second quarter.

The Hoosiers methodically worked the ball to Holmes in the post to control the pace of play. But McDonald banked in a long 3-pointer to beat the shot clock early in the quarter and Arizona led 27-23 at halftime.

Two 3-pointers from McDonald and Trinity Baptiste pushed the lead to eight early in the third, before Holmes pulled Indiana back in it again with 10 points in the quarter. McDonald ripped a rebound from the hands of an Indiana player, and an easy layup sent Arizona into the fourth leading 46-44.