Clark's Hawkeyes outlast Bueckers' Huskies, advance to national title game

It’s going to be the best playerin the country vs. the best team in the country in the nationalchampionship game after all.

Caitlin Clark and the IowaHawkeyes survived a thrilling game against Paige Bueckers and theUConn Huskies 71-69 in their NCAA Women’s March Madness Final Fourmatchup Friday night at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse inCleveland, Ohio.

The National Player of the Yearrecipient put up 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists to lead theHawkeyes to their second straight national title game appearanceand a meeting against the 36-0 South Carolina Gamecocks.

Clark, who scored 17 points inthe second half after just 4 at halftime, was clutch in the 4thquarter. She tallied 8 points and dished 3 assists, making bigplays after big plays.

But perhaps none bigger than theplay with 1.1 seconds to go with Iowa inbounding from the baseline.In a display of high basketball IQ, Clark threw the ball off theback of an unsuspecting Bueckers with her back turned towards herand the baseline to waste time off the clock. With just 0.3 secondson the timer, Iowa inbounded the ball again to essentially win thegame.

“I watch a lot of basketball andI understand basketball and she had her back turned to me. So thebiggest point was – you know the biggest thing at that point in thegame is like you just want the clock to go down,” Clark said whenasked about the play. “I mean you don’t want to give them the ballbut she had her back completely turned so I just tried to wastesome clock, and you know – it just came into my brain – so I justwent for it and it worked.”

However, Clark and Iowa’sbrilliance in the 4th quarter and the clutch were overshadowed by acrucial call late in the game. With Iowa just leading by one 70-69with 9 seconds left and UConn having possession for the final shot,Aaliyah Edwards was called for a questionable moving screen call togive the ball back to the Hawkeyes – setting up for Clark’send-game brilliance.

Bueckers, who played all 40minutes of the game, scored 17 points in UConn’s losing effortwhile fellow All-American teammate Edwards and rookie KK Arnold had17 and 14 respectively in a heartbreaking game for theHuskies.

Helping Clark survive the battleagainst Bueckers was Hannah Stuelke who played perhaps the bestgame of her life by contributing 23 points on 9/12 shooting. KateMartin chipped in 11 points and 8 rebounds for the no.1 seededHawkeyes, who will now move on to face the formidable Gamecocks whohave yet to lose a game for the season.

South Carolina took care ofbusiness earlier in the night against Cinderella team NC State78-59 to keep their dream perfect season alive entering Sunday’stitle game.

As for Bueckers, she and UConnwill end their season a game short of the title game – a feat shehas accomplished twice now in her career. A symbol of resilienceand togetherness all season long, Bueckers and UConn led bylegendary coach Geno Auriemma lost 6 players during the season toinjuries and came into the final four with just 7 availableplayers.

Nevertheless, Bueckers will haveone final shot at a national championship next year with hopefullya fully healthy and complete UConn squad with her best friend and2021 HS no.1 recruit Azzi Fudd in the fold.