The thrilling Iowa-UConn Final Four matchup in Cleveland ended in controversy, but Huskies star Paige Bueckers chose to learn from the experience.
Caitlin Clark led the Hawkeyes to a second-half comeback, but UConn had a chance to advance to the final game of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship. However, Aaliyah Edwards was called for an illegal screen with four seconds to go, and the Huskies never got the ball back. Iowa hung on to win, 71-69, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday.
UConn’s final play seemed to be setting up Bueckers to potentially hit the game-winner, but she never got the chance. Fans were irate that the officials made the offensive foul call even if it followed what constitutes an illegal screen. However, Bueckers was not in the finger-pointing mindset.
“Everybody can make a big deal out of that one single play, but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game,” Bueckers told reporters, per ESPN. “I feel like there was a lot of mistakes that I made that could have prevented that play from being that big.
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“You can look at one play and say, ‘That killed us, or that hurt us.’ But we should have done a better job — I should have done a better job of making sure we didn’t leave the game up to chance like that and leave the game up to one bad call going our way and deciding it. Maybe it was a tough call for us, but I feel like I could have done a better job from that even happening.”
Bucekers finished Friday’s matchup with 17 points, four rebounds and three assists in 40 minutes. The All-American star announced this week she will return to UConn for one more season using her extra year of eligibility.
Iowa moved on to the national championship game and will play undefeated South Carolina on Sunday.
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Featured image via Ken Blaze/USA TODAY Sports Images
