Iowa 71, UConn 69: A Final Four Team Win in Crunch Time

CLEVELAND — Basketball, as it turns out, is still a team sport.

For most of Iowa's 71-69 comeback victory over UConn, Caitlin Clark and Hannah Stuelke shouldered the scoring load. Stuelke had a game-high 23 points, including 11 in the third quarter to help Iowa erase UConn's six-point halftime lead. Clark struggled for much of the game against Nika Muhl's blanket defensive coverage, but exploded for seven quick points in the first 2:05 of the fourth quarter to help Iowa build a 60-55 lead after trailing for most of the game.

Iowa would build the lead as large as nine in the final frame before UConn made one last charge, casting the game back into doubt in the final few minutes.

As the game tightened late, though, it was Kate Martin, Sydney Affolter, and Gabbie Marshall who stepped up and made a series of crucial plays that tipped the outcome in Iowa's favor. To win a close game late in the Final Four, you need a great team. Against UConn, Iowa showed how valuable every player on the floor can be in winning time.

When UConn got the ball back with ten seconds left, trailing by a mere point, Iowa fans had to sit through a timeout, dreading the notion of Paige Bueckers hitting a dagger jumper to break Iowa's heart — and end Clark's career in one final cruel twist of the knife.

In the huddle on the court, though, Iowa's players and coaches were focused on making sure that nightmare never happened.

"We talked about if you can foul, we had some fouls to give," associate head coach Jan Jensen said. "But there's an art to that."

Next, the coaches remind their players what the out-of-bounds plays could look like, and how to account for Edwards and UConn's off-ball perimeter weapons. But there was no question on who the Huskies' number-one option was.

"I knew, and everybody knew, that the ball was going to try to go to Paige," Marshall said.

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Paige Bueckers is one of the best players in college basketball. She's especially well known for hitting clutch shots in big moments.

For the duration of the game, Marshall had done an admirable job defending the irrepressible Bueckers. Yes, Bueckers had scored 17 points, but on 7-17 (41%) shooting — well below her 53% season average.

"She just uses her screens so well," Marshall said. "She can score at all three levels."

Marshall expected UConn to throw screens at her to try to give Bueckers the space she needed to shoot: "They were going to set a bunch of screens for her," said Marshall. "But I didn't know what type of screens they were going to set."

Whatever came, Marshall was ready for it. "My mentality was that I'm going to stay on her hip no matter what. She's not getting the ball."

At speed from a far camera shot, it's hard to tell exactly what happens on the fateful screen set by Aaliyah Edwards. Slowed down, though, a few things become apparent, and virtually none of them work in UConn's favor.

First, Bueckers doesn't use the screen very well. Ideally, the offensive player runs her defender into the screen by running as closer to the screener as possible. In this case, Bueckers goes around the screen, forcing Edwards several feet closer to the three-point line to actually impede the trailing Marshall.

Second, Marshall is in excellent position. As the play begins, Marshall has to respect Bueckers at the top of the arc. UConn could've been setting up a shot for Bueckers there, and Marshall has to get to it.

Once Marshall realizes another screen is coming, she plays it perfectly, sticking close enough with Bueckers that she wouldn't be open unless a moving screen occurred. Marshall summed it up well:

"If I'm on her hip, you can't move into the player defending. That is a moving screen. I was happy that it was called."

Ole Miss coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin agreed:

Edwards' offensive foul didn't end the game. Instead, UConn began to foul. With three seconds left, Clark went to the line with a chance to hit two free throws and give Iowa a three-point lead. The situation was indeed tenuous; If Clark missed one of her free throws, UConn could not only rebound the ball down by two, the Huskies could also call their last remaining timeout to advance possession to midcourt.

Three seconds would be plenty of time for UConn to pull off a miracle, as Clark herself has proven; last year at home against Indiana, Iowa's all-everything guard only needed 1.5 seconds to get her buzzer-beater up.

Still, this was Caitlin Clark: An 86% free throw shooter and one of the most clutch players in college basketball. Most fans in the sold-out Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse could expect her to hit both free throws to put the game on ice.

When you're a rebounder, you can't focus on what most people expect.

"Anytime you're at the free throw line, you have to expect that your teammate might miss it," Affolter said. "Even if it's Caitlin."

Lo and behold, Clark's second free throw was long and hit hard off back iron. The ball bounced back towards the lane, and Stuelke could only get enough of a hand on the ball to tip it — straight to her teammate, as it turns out.

"I was crashing pretty hard whether she was going to make it or not," Affolter said. "I'm just glad to secure that at the end."

Affolter ripped the ball down, then held it tight. Bueckers came in to tie her up, but the possession arrow pointed towards Iowa, the ball on the Hawkeyes' side of the court, with a mere 1.1 seconds left on the clock. For the second consecutive year, a clutch offensive rebound had effectively secured Iowa a victory in the Final Four.

Iowa might not have kept its lead into the final seconds if it weren't for Kate Martin. With 5:42 to play, Iowa's lead was up to 66-57 before UConn went on a quick run, paring that lead back to four; for Hawkeye fans, the 4:11 left on the clock must have felt like it was running in slow-motion. With UConn's defense keying on Stuelke and Clark, Iowa needed another option. Enter the captain:

Thanks to Caitlin Clark's prodigious talents at generating both three-pointers and open looks at the rim (either her own or assisting her teammates), Iowa isn't a team that shoots a lot of mid-range jumpers. Still, the mid-range shot is a necessary part of any great player's bag against elite defenses that can protect their rim.

"I work on those every single day," Martin said of her spinning mid-range jumpers. Her diligence paid off, as her stepback with 2:57 left helped quell UConn's run.

Martin wasn't done, either:

"I saw open lanes to the basket," Martin said of her late drives. "I wasn't really getting to the rim too much, but I was creating separation in my mid-range game and I knocked down the shots."

Martin's first half on offense mirrored the Hawkeyes' futility, shooting just 1-of-5 from the floor with three turnovers. The six-year veteran knew Iowa would need her, though, and when that time came, Martin came through with some of the biggest shots of her life.

Even after Marshall's tight defense earned the charge and Affolter grabbed the crucial rebound, the game still wasn't decided. Iowa had 1.1 seconds to kill, and only the two-point lead. If Iowa got a five-second call, UConn might still get one last shot at the tie (or win). Clark found an ingenious way to take that scenario off the table:

The seed of Clark's time-waster started in Iowa's scouting report.

"We talked about it," Jensen said postgame. "Lisa told them today that they play with their back to the basket. But it's also Caitlin being Caitlin. She did it on purpose."

After Clark's pass off Bueckers' back, Iowa had just 0.3 seconds left to kill. With one final inbounds pass, the game was finally over. Iowa had taken UConn's best punch in the final few minutes and survived it. In the game billed as Caitlin vs. Paige, it took incredible plays from every Hawkeye on the floor to seal another national championship game appearance.