On Sunday, Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers beat Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85 in the national championship game to win the school’s first basketball title.
Mulkey was the first coach of women’s teams to win national titles at two different schools. Before going to LSU two years ago, she won three at Baylor. The sassy and flashy Mulkey, who wore a sparkly golden tiger-striped outfit, now has the third-most titles of all time, after Pat Summitt with eight and Geno Auriemma with 11. Mulkey has never lost a game for the championship.
Clark, who was named the AP’s national player of the year, had one of the best individual tournaments in NCAA history until she lost. The junior guard scored 30 points in the end. She had the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA history in the Elite Eight game. In the semifinals, she scored 40 points to beat unbeaten South Carolina.
The impressive guard, who grew up in Iowa, broke the NCAA record for most points scored in a tournament. She beat Sheryl Swoopes, who scored 177 points in 1993 to help Texas Tech win the title. Clark won the tournament with a score of 191.
The previous record for most points in a championship game was 97, which Texas scored against Southern California in 1986. With 102 points, they broke that record.
LSU got points from Jasmine Carson (22), Alexis Morris (21), and Angel Reese (15 points and 10 rebounds) (34-2).
Early in the third quarter, Iowa was behind by 21 points. They then went on a 15-2 run, making four 3-pointers and a 3-point play to close the gap to 65-57.
With 1:03 left in the third quarter and the Hawkeyes down 73-64, Clark was called for a technical foul. She hit the ball away while it was on the ground after a teammate was called for a foul. For her, that was her fourth personal foul of the game.
Clark played the whole fourth quarter even though she had four fouls, but the Hawkeyes couldn’t get any closer.
After Katari Poole made a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey started crying. After LSU scored again a few seconds later, Reese made fun of Clark by doing the “You can’t see me” gesture.
As the last seconds ticked away, Mulkey and Reese gave each other a big hug. This made the Tigers go crazy with joy.
Before Carson got hot from the outside, the game was close for the first 15 minutes. In the second quarter, she made all six of her shots. Four of them were 3-pointers. She threw her hands in the air after one of them, and Mulkey did the same thing from the sidelines.
The graduate student guard banked in a shot right before the halftime buzzer, giving the Tigers a 59-42 lead going into the locker room. It was the most points ever scored in a championship game’s first half. Tennessee had held the record since 1998.
In the first 20 minutes, LSU shot 58% from the field and 9/12 from behind the 3-point line. At the end of the game, the Tigers shot 54% from the field and made 11 of 17 3-pointers.
Clark had 16 points and five assists before getting her third foul with 3:56 left in the half. This did not go over well with the sellout crowd of more than 19,000 people, which included first lady Jill Biden and Billie Jean King, who were sitting in a luxury box above the court.
Before this game, Carson had never scored in any of her previous five postseason games. Before Sunday, she had 11 points in this NCAA Tournament.
Even though there were a lot of stops because of fouls, which made it hard for the offense to get going, there were a lot of points scored in the first quarter. Even though Clark scored 14 points in the first quarter, Iowa was still behind 27-22.
Carson made a 3-point shot right before the buzzer.
