by The most anticipated game of the day if not the tournament was held in Cleveland as the UConn Huskies led by Geno Auriemma took on the flaming hot Iowa Hawkeyes coached by Lisa Bluder. These teams are led by arguably the two biggest names in college basketball in UConn’s Paige Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlin Clark.
Iowa survived the near equal matchup due to a surge of offense in the fourth quarter to win 71-69 in a what will be looked at as a classic Final Four matchup. Clark recovered from a poor shooting day in the first half as she surged for 21 points. UConn who was ahead of Iowa for over 24 minutes of game time. Paige Bueckers had 17 points equaling her teammate Aaliyah Edwards.
The first half was anticlimactic as both Bueckers and Clark struggling the entire half as the supporting cast of both teams carried their stars into the second half. Clark did not make a single three the entire first half as she was 0-6 from three until the second half.
UConn maintained a six-point lead as they went into the half break, Paige Bueckers like Clark, struggled to get her offense going with only seven first half points. The Huskies relied on Nika Muhl to be the main ball handler. Muhl made a bigger impact on defense as she stopped Clark dead in her tracks in the first half. With three steals in the game Muhl put on a defensive display guarding the top scorer in the country.
The second half there was a moment when things took a turn in favor of the Hawkeyes. Clark looked like the Clark we know from weeks past and Hannah Stuelke dominated the paint leaving UConn defenders In her wake when she made her way to the basket. Rocket Mortgage Field House started to sound like it was in Iowa City and not Cleveland as the crowd was deafly in favor of Iowa. “When you are in the heat of the game you don’t here it… the way our fans have traveled all year long it has been absolutely incredible”.
With seconds left on the clock Iowa nearly saw their lead slip away into the arms of the Huskies, a four point lead turned to three when Muhl stole the ball away and hit a transition three. Iowa then held the ball as a nine second difference was all that separated the shot and game clock. A missed opportunity to close the game out gave UConn the ball with over 10 seconds to play with. They never got the shot off as an illegal screen was called when Edwards lifted her elbow out to give Bueckers an open shot.
The ticket was punched and the clocked ticked down till there was nothing left but two teams left in all of college basketball. Iowa gave themselves one last chance to win a national championship with their star player Caitlin Clark who has stunned a nation one narrow win at a time.
