Behind Caitlin Clark‘s 41 points, the Iowa Hawkeyes beat the LSU Tigers 94-87 despite being outrebounded 54-36 to advance to the Final Four.
Caitlin Clark
Clark scored her 41 points on 13-29 shooting from the field and 9-20 from beyond the arc. With her 41 points, Clark became the first player im NCAA Tournament history to have three 40-point games.
Clark’s nine threes tied her for the most in a tournament game, and she also broke Diana Taurasi‘s record for most career threes in the NCAA Tournament.
It wasn’t just her scoring. Clark dished out 12 assists and did a great job controlling the pace of the game for the Hawkeyes. She passed Temeka Johnson for most career assists in the NCAA Tournament since 1995.
“This one probably feels a little bit better. It’s my senior year, with this group,” Clark said. “A lot of people counted us out at the beginning of the year with the people we lost. And all we did was work really hard. To get back here is really hard. This region was loaded with so much talent. The job’s not finished.”
Clark had help
Clarks scored 41 points, but she had help from Kate Martin and Sydney Affolter. Martin scored 21 points on 8-16 field-goal shooting, and Affolter scored 16 points on 5-10 field-goal shooting. If Iowa is to win the NCAA Tournament, they will need more games like this from Martin and Affolter.
LSU
LSU had 23 offensive rebounds in the game but struggled to shoot from the field, shooting 38.6%.
Angel Reese got off to hit-start but struggled in the second half; she finished the game with 17 points and 20 rebounds but only shot 7-21 from the field.
Flau’Jae Johnson led the Tigers in scoring with 23 points and shot the ball well from the field. Annesah Morrow grabbed 14 rebounds and scored 14 points, but she missed quite a few easy shots, which could have helped close the gap.
Freshman Mikayla Williams added 18 points and seven rebounds. Haley Ban Lith did not look comfortable at all; she. She shot 2-10 from the field and scored nine points.
It was a challenging game for the Tigers; I was surprised they did not trap or double Clark to get the ball out of hands more often.
“There’s not a lot of strategy. You’ve got to guard her. Nobody else seems to be able to guard her,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. “We didn’t even guard her last year when we beat them. She’s just a generational player, and she just makes everybody around her better.”
They did a late in the fourth quarter, but it was too late. It could have been a different game if they had made easy shots.
Follow me on Twitter @raiderway83 and read other outstanding articles on Beyond Women’s Sports.
