Iowa 71, UConn 69: Back-to-Back in Black

CLEVELAND — Exhale, Hawkeye fans. And keep your feet set while you do it.

Iowa got a game-high 23 points from Hannah Stuelke and upended powerhouse UConn Friday night, defeating the Huskies 71-69 in an instant classic to reach the national championship game for the second straight year.

The Hawkeyes erased a 12-point first-half deficit, and Caitlin Clark fought through a slow shooting first half to finish with 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Huskies' defensive length hounded her for 40 minutes.

The win sets up a matchup against — who else — undefeated South Carolina, who used a dominant third quarter to put away North Carolina State, 78-59, in the early game Friday. The Hawkeyes and Gamecocks will tip off at 2 PM CT Sunday on ABC, with specialty feeds on ESPN and ESPN+.

The game's pivotal play, the one that'll continue to dominate discussion until tipoff Sunday, came in the waning seconds as UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards was called for a moving screen, nailing Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall and erasing the Huskies' last chance at taking the lead.

1. It was a tough call — and a moving screen. After forcing a turnover with 10 seconds left in a one-point game, UConn had one possession to try a potentially game-winning shot. That shot never went up, as Edwards stepped into Marshall's path, bringing an elbow up for good measure to jar Iowa's defensive dynamo — in full view of the nearby official. Sure enough, the whistle blew and UConn's title dreams all but vanished, prompting apoplexy from the Husky players, coaches and fanbase.

"My point of view, it was pretty clean," Edwards said after the game.

Unfortunately for her, slow-motion does Edwards' case no favors.

"We work on it in different defensive drills," associate head coach Jan Jensen said. "In that particular [instance], that's just a lot of Gabbie Marshall."

Marshall's ability to read the pistol action — a screen and re-screen going the other direction, designed to free up Paige Bueckers — forced Edwards out of position to make a clean screen off Bueckers' second cut. If the UConn forward sliding into Marshall's path wasn't proof enough of a foul, Edwards' elbow coming up into contact left no double.

Whistle. Ballgame.

Was it a foul? By the book, of course it was. Edwards' feet aren't even close to set, even after she brings an elbow up to make enough contact to take Marshall out of the play.

Is it disappointing for most viewers that an opportunity to win the game was taken off the board by a whistle? Of course it is.

The one argument that really doesn't hold water, though, is that Edwards' screen was 100% clean. Ole Miss head coach Yolett McCuin took to Twitter to note how the offensive call was, in fact, common:

The part that will stick in many fans' collective craw is that the game had featured a lot of uncalled contact, some on collisions that looked even more worthy of a call.

"I mean, there's probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession," UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. "I just know there were three or four of them called on us and I don't think there were any called on them. So I guess we've just got to get better on not setting illegal screens."

That included non-calls against both teams, to be clear — if the officials were so pro-Iowa, and the bias the referees will be accused of for the next 48 hours actually existed, then presumably someone on UConn would have fouled out — but that's small comfort for fans who wanted to see a buzzer-beating shot in the air.

Players should decide the game, the refrain goes. And indeed: Edwards' illegal screen decided the game.

It might not be satisfying, but it's the right call.

2. Hannah Stuelke puts the team on her back. With Caitlin Clark harried into one of her worst halves of basketball in the first 20 minutes — six points on 3-of-11 shooting, 0-of-6 from deep, and three turnovers — Iowa needed an influx of energy (and points) from somewhere.

Enter Stuelke.

Iowa's rapidly ascendant sophomore forward put in one of her finest games as a Hawkeye Friday night, against one of the toughest sets of bigs in college basketball. Stuelke scored 23 points, including 15 in the second half as she helped pace Iowa's surge and, ultimately, victory.

"I think Hannah's tremendous," Clark said. "Just the confidence and belief. Tonight she played with an energy about herself that 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. It was physical with her. Guarded her well. Boxed her out. And [Stuelke] wasn't afraid to take it at her either."

Indeed, Stuelke shot 9-of-12 from the field, making forceful drives to the rim and connecting on baskets while frequently absorbing contact — which was sporadically called. Hey, it's the Final Four.

Perhaps the biggest proof of Stuelke's emergence as a star Friday night wasn't in her own statistical production, but in that of UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards — or the lack thereof. Edwards, a consensus first-round pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, had burned Iowa for 20 points, 13 rebounds and six assists in the Huskies' 86-79 win last season. Friday, Stuelke held Edwards to a more modest 17-8-3.

"I thought [Stuelke] was really great," Jensen said. "I love Edwards. Her mid-range game, and her power. I thought Hannah battled and she was strong. And down the stretch, boy, they were battling. I thought Hannah was sensational today. I think it was a big-time difference why we won."

What made Stuelke's prowess on both ends of the floor particularly noteworthy was the contrast with her performance against LSU's twin post dynamos of Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow in Iowa's Elite Eight victory over LSU last Monday, where Stuelke was held to eight points and five rebounds as the Hawkeyes leaned more on backup center Addison O'Grady in the second half.

"I thought I prepared better for this game than I did for [LSU]," Stuelke said.

It's a good thing too, as O'Grady's two minutes on the floor saw her draw a pair of personal fouls and a turnover, and neither Sharon Goodman nor AJ Ediger were viable candidates to counteract Edwards' skill set. Either Stuelke had to outplay the future first-round pick, or Iowa had to start packing.

So whether it's a matter of preparation, confidence, or just a more winnable physical matchup, Stuelke's ability to go toe-to-toe with a future WNBA star for 38 of 40 minutes helped negate one of UConn's key talent advantages, and let Iowa come away with a monumental victory.

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

3. About that South Carolina matchup. Clark's production rebounded in the second half to finish with 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists — a stat line any other player would gladly take against UConn's vaunted defense. And while Clark's four turnovers would barely register as unusual, Iowa found itself committing 12 total turnovers in the first half as the Huskies harassed the Hawkeyes into all sorts of miscues.

"Our defense was good enough to make sure we won the game tonight," said Auriemma. "But offensively we just didn't have enough impactful players play their normal game."

As the game wore on and the Huskies' abject lack of depth began to wear on their legs, Iowa was able to retake control of the ball — and the game. Iowa only committed four second-half turnovers, and just like that the offense snapped back into motion after a dismal start.

South Carolina will have no such issue with depth, as the Gamecocks' head coach has amassed a roster so stocked with talent that Iowa's "run them out of the gym" tactic figures to have met its end for the season

The Gamecocks' bench rotation Friday included second-team All-SEC forward Ashlyn Watkins and 5-star dynamo freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley; all told, the Gamecocks' bench played 87 of the team's 200 floor minutes Friday.

Iowa's bench, by comparison, played seven.

The Hawkeyes figure to need a better scoring performance from the perimeter against the Gamecocks as well. Iowa shot just 7-of-25 from 3-point range against UConn, including a 3-of-11 effort from Caitlin Clark and a combined 2-of-11 performance from Kate Martin and Gabbie Marshall. That likely won't cut it against the Gamecocks, especially since points in the post could be at a premium with Stuelke & Co. battling South Carolina star Kamilla Cardoso and a legion of talented bigs.

Contesting South Carolina's long-range efforts will also be important; the Gamecocks were a poor shooting team from long range last season (and went just 4-of-20 from beyond the arc against Iowa in last year's Final Four loss), but they're much improved this season and coming off an 8-of-19 showing from deep in their 78-59 win over North Carolina State in the other semifinal.

As the team's two leading scorers, Clark and Stuelke were on the dais after the game, and the following exchange is pretty much a perfect encapsulation of their respective demeanors in facing the media.

Q. What was UConn doing so well in the first half to limit your team to 26 points and to limit you, Caitlin, to six points?

CAITLIN CLARK: Honestly, like, UConn is a really good defensive team, one of the best defensive teams we've seen all year. I think Nika did a tremendous job guarding me.

We got some good looks. They just didn't go in. And sometimes that's just what happens. We missed some easy bunnies around the rim.

But I think 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.

We knew at some point our shots would go down. We put up 45 points in the second half, 25 in the third quarter. Came out in the fourth quarter, started really hot.

So I don't think it was like a freaking out about offense not working. I think it was just a it will come around. We didn't execute great, and we were only down six. We felt really confident in that. Nobody panicked. Everybody knew we just needed to clean it up a little bit, and that's exactly what we did.

HANNAH STUELKE: She never leaves me anything to say. Yeah.

Stuelke is a woman of few words with the media; fortunately for Iowa, her play on the court speaks volumes.

NEXT: Iowa will play South Carolina in the national championship game on Sunday, April 7 at 2 PM CT. ABC is set to televise the game.