LSU wins their first National Title 102-85
After defeating Virigina Tech in the Final Four, the creative and colorful LSU women's team had a date with the magicians of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa team in a championship match-up for a winner take all game.
Prior to tipoff, the buzz surrounding the game was Clark and her ability to not just shoot the ball out of the gym, but the way she set her teammates up to score as a floor general. LSU's coach Kim Mulkey understood that her team needed to keep the ball out of Clark and force other players to score. Mulkey wanted her team to use their height advantage with Angel Reese to set the tone early. In the last two games, Reese struggled early on, but made plays down the stretch to put her team in position to win games. Let's see how they faired against Iowa.
Just like the first two games, LSU had to dig deep and battle out of an early deficit. They went on a 5-2 run to get themselves back in the game. Reese was a huge factor in the run. Not only she was running the floor and scoring buckets, but she was very active with getting into the passing lanes. Despite Clark hitting everything from the parking lot, LSU was matching their intensity. The referees were calling everything tight, and Reese was hit with her second foul going into the second quarter.
The Tigers were getting everything they wanted in the paint, but their transition defense was a huge concern. Iowa had seven points running the floor. LSU turned on the jets offensively and sprinted to a 59-42 lead, shooting over 58% from the field.
If you thought Iowa was going to back down, they went on a 14-2 run to make things very interesting early in the third. LSU started to see their double-digit lead erased in a blink of an eye. Clark started to heat up and the Tigers started to lose their composure. Reese and Jasmine Carson kept the gas on the pedal and hit crucial buckets to put LSU back in double figures at the end of the third.
Each time Iowa would score, LSU would answer the call. LSU went on to pull out the victory.
