LSU Wins NCAA Women’s Title With Rout of Iowa and Clark

In her national semifinal, Clark had led the upset of all upsets in this tournament, when she dropped 41 points against then undefeated South Carolina, ending what many thought would be a romp for the Gamecocks to a second straight championship.

One fan during that game prominently waved a sign that read, “In Clark we trust,” as Clark cemented her stardom in front of a record television audience, including the curiously casual and fans who have been following her rise all along.

As the teams shook hands after game, Mulkey told Clark that she was a “generational player.”

The game was tightly officiated. The referees called 37 fouls. Clark had to spend extra time on the bench as she accumulated four fouls, her last on a technical for throwing a ball in frustration after Monika Czinano, Iowa’s second-leading scorer, picked up her fourth foul.

After the game, the referee Lisa Jones said that Clark was charged the technical because she didn’t give the ball back to a referee immediately and Iowa had already received a delay-of-game warning in the third quarter.

Czinano and McKenna Warnock, another Iowa starter, both fouled out. Reese finished with four fouls.

“They wouldn’t even listen to me, there wasn’t even a conversation that could be had,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said of the officials. “When your two seniors have to sit on the bench, those two women didn’t deserve that. And Caitlin getting a T? It’s too bad.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/sports/ncaabasketball/lsu-championship-angel-reese-caitlin-clark.html