DALLAS (AP) — Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers used an offensive record to defeat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 in the national championship game on Sunday to win the school’s first basketball title.
The win made Mulkey the first women’s coach to win national championships at two different schools. She won three at Baylor before leaving for LSU two years ago. The feisty and flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who donned a shimmering gold tiger-striped outfit, now holds the third most titles of all time behind Geno Auriemma’s 11 and Pat Summitt’s eight. Mulkey has never lost in a championship game.
The loss ended one of the greatest individual performances in NCAA Tournament history by AP National Player of the Year Clark. The junior guard finished with 30 points. She scored 40 in the semifinals to take out undefeated South Carolina one game after having the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA history in the Elite Eight.
The dazzling guard, who grew up in Iowa, set the NCAA record for points in a tournament, passing the 177 scored by Sheryl Swoopes in 1993 on his way to lead Texas Tech to the title that year. Clark finished her tournament with 191.
The 102 points broke the previous high for a championship game, surpassing the 97 Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.
Jasmine Carson scored 22 points, Alexis Morris added 21, and Angel Reese had 15 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (34-2).
Trailing by 21 points early in the third quarter, Iowa began batting from the outside to go on a 15-2 run, hit four 3-pointers, and have a three-point game to go inside 65-57. come.
The Hawkeyes (31-7) trailed 73-64 with 1:03 left in the third quarter when Clark was called for a technical foul. She hit the ball away when it was on the ground after a foul against a teammate. That counted as a personal foul for her, her fourth of the game.
Clark played the entire fourth quarter with four errors, but couldn’t get the Hawkeyes much closer.
After Katari Poole hit a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey began to cry. Seconds later, after another LSU basket, Reese taunted Clark by covering her face with a “you can’t see me” gesture.
As the final seconds ticked by, Mulkey and Reese hugged, beginning a wild celebration by the Tigers.
The game was tight for the first 15 minutes before Carson got hot from the outside. She made all six of her shots in the second quarter, including four three-pointers. She threw up her hands after one of them and Mulkey mimicked it on the sidelines.
For the record, the graduate student guard fired in a shot just before the halftime buzzer to give the Tigers a 59-42 lead at the break. It was the most points ever scored in the first half of a championship game, breaking Tennessee’s record since 1998.
“I’ve worked for this all my life,” Carson said at half-time. “It feels great to finally show it on this stage.”
LSU shot 58% from the field in the first 20 minutes, including nine for 12 from behind the arc. The Tigers finished the game shooting 54% from the field, including 11 of 17 three-pointers.
Clark had 16 points and five assists before picking up her third foul with 3:56 left in the half, which didn’t sit well with the sold-out crowd of more than 19,000 fans, including first lady Jill Biden and Billie Jean King. who sat together in a luxury box above the court.
Before this game, Carson had gone scoreless in five of her seven career postseason games. She had 11 points in this NCAA Tournament before Sunday.
It was a high-scoring first quarter despite many stoppages due to bad calls, making it more difficult to get into an offensive flow. Clark had a huge first quarter, scoring 14 points, but Iowa trailed 27-22.
Carson fired in a three-pointer before the buzzer.
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