ALBANY, N.Y. — In a recreation that lived as much as the hype — a rematch of the 2023 girls’s NCAA match championship recreation — just one star from a yr in the past may transfer on to the Last 4. And that’s the largest star of school basketball this season: Caitlin Clark.
For the second yr in a row, Clark had a legendary Elite Eight efficiency, main her No. 1 seed Iowa Hawkeyes to a 94-87 victory over defending nationwide champion LSU, the No. 3 seed within the Albany 2 Regional.
Clark had 41 factors, 12 assists and seven rebounds, breaking much more data in what’s been a record-shattering senior season. She was named the regional’s Most Excellent Participant.
However what issues most to Clark is getting one other probability at a nationwide championship, one thing Iowa was denied final season in a 102-85 loss to LSU. The Hawkeyes entered Monday’s regional closing because the No. 1 seed however had been perceived by many because the underdog — partially as a result of the Tigers gained final season’s title recreation relatively decisively.
Nonetheless, the Hawkeyes began Monday’s recreation sharp. And in a 3rd quarter the place Clark’s brand 3-pointers stole the present, Iowa constructed a lead that it did not hand over. This system superior to its second consecutive Last 4 and third total.
Final yr’s closing in Dallas was the most-watched recreation ever for ladies’s faculty basketball, drawing an viewers of almost 10 million. Coaches Kim Mulkey of LSU and Lisa Bluder of Iowa lamented that their groups met earlier than the Last 4 this season, nevertheless it made for lots of drama. Who would transfer on to Cleveland? LSU’s Angel Reese, final season’s Most Excellent Participant of the Last 4? Or Clark, some of the transformational gamers we have seen within the girls’s faculty recreation?
In the long run, it was Clark shifting on. Reese completed with 17 factors and 20 rebounds, however fouled out. LSU outrebounded Iowa 54-36, however Iowa outshot the Tigers 46.5% to 38.6%.
Clark, projected to be the No. 1 choose within the WNBA draft April 15, additionally had 41 factors final yr in a regional closing win over Louisville. Throughout the course of Monday’s recreation, she added to her report assortment.
Earlier this season, she turned the all-time main scorer in Division I, and the primary girls’s basketball participant to have greater than 3,000 factors and 1,000 assists. She additionally broke the report for many factors in a season, which now stands at 1,183.
Clark’s present whole is 3,900 profession factors, placing her previous the three,884 of Francis Marion’s Pearl Moore, who compiled that sum for the all-school report within the AIAW period. Clark additionally handed Oklahoma’s Taylor Robertson for the Division I profession 3-point report; she now has 540 after tying an NCAA match single-game report Monday with 9 from lengthy vary.
Each groups received off to sturdy begins offensively, with LSU taking pictures 60.9% within the first quarter and Iowa 55.6% because the Tigers led 31-26. Clark had 11 factors within the opening quarter, and Reese 10.
LSU’s taking pictures cooled off a little bit extra within the second quarter, however there have been dazzling performs made by each groups as the primary half completed tied 45-45.
Within the third quarter, Clark began working a few of her particular magic. She had 12 factors, all on 3-pointers. The Hawkeyes took a 69-58 lead right into a pressure-packed fourth quarter.
However Iowa held off the Tigers, who completed 31-6. As the ultimate seconds ticked away, the largely Iowa crowd at MVP Area roared, and Clark tossed the sport ball to her youthful brother, Colin, within the stands.
Subsequent cease for the 33-4 Hawkeyes: Cleveland.
Clark has been a phenomenon throughout her 4 years at Iowa, because the Hawkeyes bought out each dwelling recreation — and lots of on the highway — this season. From her long-range 3-pointers to her pinpoint assists, Clark captured the creativeness of followers nationwide. Her profession additionally coincided with the flexibility of athletes to capitalize on title, picture and likeness alternatives, permitting Clark to signal endorsement offers with corporations equivalent to Nike, Gatorade and State Farm.
That and her varied record-breaking performances raised her profile properly past the borders of her dwelling state. The native of West Des Moines, Iowa, got here to Iowa Metropolis saying her purpose was to get the Hawkeyes again to the Last 4. This system beforehand had made it that far in 1993, 9 years earlier than Clark was born. She did it final yr. Now she has performed it once more.