Hawkeyes rally past UConn to advance to the national title game

The Connecticut Women’s Basketball program has found itself at the pinnacle more times than any other program could even dream of. They’ve won 11 national titles, made 23 Final Fours and are led by Geno Auriemma, the best coach the sport has ever seen. On Friday night, the Iowa Hawkeyes, making just their third ever Final Four appearance, slayed women’s basketball’s historical Goliath. Their 71-69 win clinched them a spot in Sunday’s national title game against South Carolina. They became just the fifth program since 2000 to advance to back-to-back national title games.

“I think everybody’s confidence has been at an all-time high throughout the Big Ten Tournament and during the NCAA Tournament, and that’s how it needs to be and that’s the reason we’re at this point,” said Caitlin Clark. “The reason we’ve won games all year long is because we play Iowa basketball.”

“Iowa Basketball” has been pretty darn good over the last two seasons, winning 65 of their last 76 games. However, defeating UConn was no easy task. In the first half, the Hawkeyes looked to be playing on their heels, while the Huskies were the aggressors. Shots weren’t falling, Caitlin Clark was held in check and most importantly, Iowa couldn’t stop turning the ball over.

“UConn is a really good defensive team, one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen all year,” said Clark. “We got some good looks. They just didn’t go in and sometimes that’s just what happens…the best thing about our group is we went into the locker room at halftime and it wasn’t, like, oh, come on, you’ve got to make shots. It was, no, stop turning the ball over and you’re going to be perfectly fine.”

A three-pointer from Paige Bueckers midway through the second quarter capped off a 9-2 run and gave UConn a 28-16 advantage. The Hawkeyes were searching for a response after getting punched in the face. A late run to close out the half helped Iowa go into the locker room with a “we’re ok” feeling. Syd Affolter poured in six points in the span of two minutes and a 10-4 Iowa run cut the deficit to 32-26 at the break.

“I was really proud of them, we were down 12. We got it cut to a real manageable number by halftime. That’s all you can ask,” said Lisa Bluder. “We just talked about valuing the ball. We just turned the ball over. Our defense was really pretty good. They scored 13 points off of our turnovers. So we take that out of the mix and it’s a totally different half.”

The vibe was different for the Hawkeyes right out of the gate in the third quarter and so was the intensity of the game. Gabbie Marshall hit a three-poitner on their first possession of the half, but after that, the teams exchanged blows for most of the quarter.

A big moment came with around four minutes to play in the third. Ice Brady converted a basket, plus the foul to extend the UConn lead to 44-39. On the ensuing Iowa possession, Caitlin Clark buried a three-pointer, plus the foul on Ashlynn Shade, right in front of her own bench. The swing in momentum kept the Hawkeyes right on UConn’s tail.

After asserting herself early in the game with eight first half points, Hannah Stuelke kept her foot on the gas, despite matching up with one of the top post players in the country in Aaliyah Edwards. Six straight points from Stuelke on the Iowa end of the floor gave Iowa a 49-47 lead. She finished the game with a team-high 23 points on 9 of 12 shooting from the floor.

“I think Hannah’s tremendous. It’s just the confidence and belief. I think tonight she played with an energy about herself of she really could go in there and dominate. She goes toe to toe with Aaliyah Edwards, who in my mind is one of the best players in the country,” said Caitlin Clark. “She was physical with her. Guarded her well. Boxed her out. And she wasn’t afraid to take it at her either.”

The game headed to the fourth quarter knotted at 51 points apiece. It felt like the first punch thrown in the final quarter would go a long way towards determining a winner. That punch came from the Hawkeyes.

After a basket from Hannah Stuelke, Caitlin Clark hit a stepback three-pointer to extend their lead to 56-51. A few minutes later, leading by three, Iowa went on a crucial run to put some space between themselves and the Huskies. A 6-0 run extended the Iowa lead to 66-57 and it was a much needed spurt, as UConn answered with a 5-0 burst to cut it to 66-62.

Kate Martin took a shot to the face late in the third quarter and briefly exited with blood coming out of her nose, but delivered a trio of tough midrange baskets in the final minutes. The final one, a drive to the basket late in the shot clock put Iowa up 70-64 with two minutes to play.

“I think Kate’s just toughness, leadership, resiliency and leadership is the biggest thing. You see it — Kate’s a pro player. You see her game, she’s hitting fadeaway jump shots, she’s going at people,” said Clark. “The way she took over at the end of the fourth, I’m just so proud of her.”

The Huskies did not roll over and let Iowa run out the final 120 seconds. In fact, a three-pointer from Nika Muhl cut the Hawkeyes lead to 70-69. On the ensuing Iowa possession, KK Arnold stole a pass from Hannah Stuelke, giving UConn a chance to potentially win it on the final possession. However, instead of a look at a game winning shot, Aaliyah Edwards was whistled for a moving screen with 3.9 seconds to play. Paige Bueckers shrugged it off in the postgame press conference, saying that they had other opportunities.

“Everybody can make a big deal of that one single play, but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game. I feel there were a lot of mistakes that I made that could have prevented that play from even being that big.”

At the other end, Caitlin Clark hit the front end of a 1-and-1 to make it 71-69, but missed the second. Insert Syd Affolter. She pulled down her sixth offensive rebound of the game to clinch the victory.

“We really kept believing, and I’m just so proud of the character of these young women to maintain their composure through some pretty tough times in the first half,” said Bluder. “Couldn’t be happier with our performance tonight in the second half.”

Up Next, the Iowa Hawkeyes will face off against South Carolina in the national title game on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 2:00pm CT on ABC.