Millions of eyes were on the UConn-Iowa Final Four matchup in Cleveland, and a thrilling game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse ended in controversy.
The Huskies went up 32-26 after the first half, but the Hawkeyes made it a game in the second half thanks to Caitlin Clark and Hannah Stuelke. UConn’s defense made key plays in the final seconds of the matchup and set itself up for a potential game-winning shot with 10 seconds left. However, as the play for Paige Bueckers was set up, Gabbie Marshall drew an offensive foul on Aaliyah Edwards. Iowa hung on to beat UConn, 71-69.
Fans were left disappointed that a thrilling game might have been decided by the officials. Edwards told reporters after the game she was not given an explanation for the illegal screen call.
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“My point of view it was pretty clean,” Edwards told reporters, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou.
The Huskies were called for more fouls on the Hawkeyes — 18-to-9 — while it did seem like Edwards was out of position to give Bueckers space, Marshall did fight over the screen, so fans felt it was the wrong time to blow the whistle, especially since there could have been other times an offensive foul could have been called.
“There’s probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession,” Geno Auriemma told reporters, per SNY. “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 just got to get better at not setting illegal screens.”
UConn gave credit to Clark and Iowa for the win, and Bueckers viewed it as a learning moment heading into her fifth year. The Hawkeyes advanced to the national title game to face South Carolina on Sunday.
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Featured image via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
