It was such a great game that it was a shame to see it end this way. I am sure that experts will spend the next day arguing on whether or not the call was correct. Sadly, we will never know whether UConn would have made a basket on that last possession, or if Iowa would have held on to win. But it was a still an amazing finish to a great game.

In the first half, UConn had the control. They forced a ton of turnovers, held Clark to only a few points, everyone was missing contested layups, and the entire Iowa team seemed out of sorts based on the pressure that the Huskies were bringing. This led to the Huskies being up 6 at halftime.

Iowa jumped out quickly in the third quarter. And by doing a better job of controlling the ball and getting Caitlin Clark a few better looks, they had managed to tie the game going into the 4th quarter.

That charge continued into the 4th quarter as Hannah Stuelke hit a layup and Clark hit a three-pointer to give the Hawkeyes a 5 point lead. They would grow that lead to 9 with a little under 6 to play as Gabbie Marshall hit a two point shot from the wing, that at first glance looked like a three-pointer but her foot was just barely on the line.

But the time-out to review how many points the shot was helped UConn regroup. Aaliyah Edwards made a layup and Paige Bueckers hit a three-pointer to make it a 4 point lead with about 4 minutes left. Both teams were able to get the ball inside a few times to trade baskets, but the lead stayed at 4 with about a minute to play.

That is when Huskies’ Nika Muhl pressured Kate Martin to force a turnover. Muhl took the ball down the court, passed the ball to KK Arnold, and Arnold passed it back to Muhl at the top of the key. Muhl would calmly hit the three pointer and cut the lead to 1.

Iowa got the ball into Clark and she started to take the clock down. Eventually, she drove to the basket, made a nice pass into Hannah Stuelke, who tried to pass the ball to a teammate but got the ball stolen, so it looked like the Huskies would get the final chance.

Muhl drove the ball down the sideline towards the corner, and as she got there with about 4 seconds left, an offensive foul was called on Aaliyah Edwards for an illegal screen. As they showed the replay, it looked like Edwards had just barely set her position before the Iowa player ran into her. And while she certainly hit the Iowa player with her shoulder, it didn’t look any worse than your normal screen. Based on the rules, it probably was an illegal screen. Was it unfortunate that the game was going to likely end on that play.

Iowa got the ball into Clark, who only hit one of the two free throws. But Iowa’s Sydney Affolter grabbed the rebound. UConn would force a held ball, but that gave Iowa the ball out-of-bounds with under 2 seconds left. And Clark did something sneaky smart. When the Connecticut player guarding the in-bounds turned around for a second, Clark threw the ball off her back to allow another second to fall off the clock.

At this point, Iowa was able to simply get the ball in and throw it in the air. Iowa held on to win 71-69 to advance to the final where South Carolina awaits. We can only hope that the championship game will be as close and great as the game we just watched!

Congratulations to Iowa and South Carolina for advancing to the championship game!!!!!!