DALLAS – One whistle after another led to a frustrating finish to a record-setting season for the University of Iowa women’s basketball team.
Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock, the only two Hawkeyes who played their final college games Sunday in a 102-85 loss to LSU in the Final Four championship game, both fouled out in the fourth quarter.
Scoring leader Caitlin Clark picked up her fourth on a technical foul in the third quarter when she was whistled for delay of game after Iowa had been warned for delay of game earlier in the quarter.
“It changes everything when your starters are in foul trouble like that,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said.
She wasn’t the only one visibly frustrated. Tigers coach Kim Mulkey spent time roaming the area in front of the LSU bench as one whistle after another destroyed the flow of the game and had top players from both teams on the bench with foul issues.
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An NCAA tourney title-game record 37 fouls were called in the game, 19 on LSU and 18 on Iowa.
Bluder described the situation as frustrating.
“I can’t comment on the official. It’s very frustrating because I feel like I can’t talk to them. They won’t even listen. What’s frustrating is there wasn’t even a conversation that could be had,” Bluder said. “When your two seniors have to sit on the bench – they don’t know they are seniors and I get that – but those two women didn’t deserve it. I don’t think so.”
Asked if a tightly-called game hurts the women’s game as the nation looked on, Czinano said she would leave that for others to decide.
“Those calls were called. Going forward, we’ll see what people decide to do about it,” she said.
Record setter: Clark had a record-setting final day of the 2023 NCAA tournament.
With Iowa’s run to the Final Four title game, Clark established an NCAA tourney record by scoring 191 points in the Hawkeyes’ six games.
The junior also set a championship game record by hitting eight 3-point baskets in the loss.
The Hawkeyes went 14 for 30 from behind the arc in the game, including an 8-of-19 game from Clark.
Sunday’s game was the 100th of her career. She has totaled 2,717 points in those 100 games, the most points ever by an NCAA Division I men’s or women’s player in that timeframe.
Clark is one of four players, male or female, to top 2,500 points through 100 games at the Division I level.
Inside and out: Clark shared a moment with Czinano before the two walked off the court Sunday.
“I told her, I’m nothing without you. She’s made me a better person, a better basketball player. I’ve just been really lucky that I was able to play with Mon and share a lot of fun moments with her,” Clark said.
“I think we’re one of the best post-guard duos to play the game and I’m just really lucky and grateful to have had these years together.”
Red-carpet treatment: Iowa and LSU entered the American Airlines Center on a red carpet lined with cheering fans of both teams.
Thousands of Hawkeye fans found their way to the carpet more than an hour before Iowa’s team bus arrived, many having started the day celebrating at a pregame Hawkeye Huddle at the nearby Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
“It was incredible,” Iowa guard Kate Martin said. “As the bus pulled up and we saw all those people, everybody was smiling. Those fans, they were there for us. It was an amazing scene, something we’ll remember forever.”
Clark appreciated the support.
“The Iowa fans, we love them,” Clark said. “They’ve been there for us all season and to see them come out like that, to come all this way and be here for us this weekend, it’s really meaningful to us. We appreciate them so much.”
As the LSU team arrived, the Tigers were greeted to a chant of “Let’s go, Hawks,” the volume reaching a crescendo when coach Kim Mulkey stepped off the bus wearing a tiger-print outfit.
Iowa was greeted by even more of a racket as the Hawkeyes made their arrival about 90 minutes prior to the championship game’s tipoff.
Pork prize: LSU’s win earned Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards some Iowa pork.
Edwards challenged Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to a friendly wager before Sunday’s game, offering some Louisiana boudin to Reynolds if the Tigers lost to the Hawkeyes in the national title game.
Boudin is a Cajun treat, a mixture of meat, rice and seasonings stuffed in pork casings.
Eyes on Iowa: ESPN released viewership numbers for Friday’s semifinal session and Iowa’s semifinal win over South Carolina was watched by 5.5 million viewers with a peak viewership of 6.6 million.
The numbers make it part of the most-watched NCAA women’s semifinals in ESPN history and the third-most watched women’s basketball game in the network’s history.
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