SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
The scoreboard clock on Friday ticked on down to 2.7 seconds, Iowa was up by four points, called time out and Caitlin Clark knew what she was doing.
After yet another remarkable performance from the 6-foot junior, she took the throw in and dribbled to the other side of the basket and heaved the ball in the air as the final buzzer sounded.
That was it, 77-73 Hawkeyes to squash the lengthy 42-game winning streak of undefeated South Carolina, and All-America Player of the Year Clark, who turned in record back-to-back 40-point games, was in the mood for a special ending.
It moved Iowa against Louisiana State into Sunday’s championship game of the National Basketball Women’s Tournament played at the Airlines Arena Center in Dallas, the clash of two No. 3 seeds.
“It was truly special to do something like that,” she said, “to realize it’s over, we won it, the streak is gone and we’re going to celebrate.”
Clark had 41 this time, one more than that scored the previous game. She was 15-for-31 from the field, 8-of-17 from the 3, took down six rebounds and handed out eight assists.
Afterwards in her overjoyed television interview, she said they had nothing to lose, that she had all the confidence in the world in her group, and are still playing as the startled reigning champion Gamecocks (36-1) depart.
But thanks to the spectacular play of versatile Clark and the historic year by South Carolina, this was one of the most talked about and highly anticipated Final Fours in women’s play.
Said Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder: “I just love that Caitlin Clark, we’ve been talking about being mission-focused a lot this year, and we had a game plan for this one and our guys certainly executed it behind Clark.”
The game lived up to the hype surrounding it — the best player versus the best team much to the delight of the sellout crowd of over 19,000.
“We had a great season,” said Gamecocks’ head coach Dawn Staley, “but Iowa just played well, hung around, and I wish it luck in the final.”
That’s it, no number ones, now it becomes a showdown of No. 3s.
For South Carolina, 5-9 senior guard Zia Clark had its team-high of 24 points, 5-8 freshman Raven Johnson tallied 18, and 6-7 junior Kamila Cardoso tossed in 14.
Not much of a game for Gamecocks’ 6-5 senior Aliyah Boston as she scored only eight points on 2-for-9 field goal attempts.
They were 30-for-77 from the field, made but 4-of-20 3s, came down with 45 boards and gave out nine assists.
For the Hawkeyes it was the initial appearance in the semifinals in 30 years, the last time in 1993 under then-head coach C. Vivian Stringer and lost in overtime to Ohio State.
They stayed with the Gamecocks throughout, never backed down, led 22-13 after one quarter, had it trimmed to 38-37 at the intermission, stayed in front 59-55 after three quarters, and maintained it via four straight free throws by Clark in the final minute.
It was in fact a 14-for-14 night at the foul line for Iowa and Clark was 8-for-8.
She also received a stellar effort from 6-3 senior forward Monika Czinano, who scored 18 for her team’s other player in double figures, and made good on an awesome 6-for-8 from the floor.
As a team, the Hawkeyes (31-6) were 28-for-57 from the field, 7-for-23 from beyond the 3, took down 22 rebounds and had 14 key assists.
