Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes are going back to the national championship game for the second year in a row after a dramatic, controversial, 71-69, win over the UConn Huskies in the Final Four on Friday night. There, they'll face the South Carolina Gamecocks for a chance to win the first women's basketball title in school history.
The moving screen call on UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards in the closing seconds will be the biggest story, but Iowa was only in front at that point because they overcame a double-digit deficit. Here's how Clark and Co. battled back from a slow start and adjusted to UConn's ultra-aggressive defensive approach.
Get out and run
On the very first possession of the second half, Kate Martin picked off a pass from Ashlynn Shade and took off the other way. She drove towards the paint, collapsed the defense and kicked it out to Gabbie Marshall for a wide-open 3-pointer that caught nothing but net.
No team was more effective in transition than the Hawkeyes this season. Transition opportunities accounted for over 20% of their offense, and they scored a nation-leading 1.172 points per possession on the break. They weren't getting those chances in the first half. "That wasn't a very good start for us, at all," Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. "They did a great job in transition defense and getting back and not letting us really get our running game going."
In the second half, the Hawkeyes insisted on pushing the pace. After scoring just four points in transition in the first half, they had 10 in the second, and that number easily could have been higher. It was no surprise that when they made their big run in the fourth quarter, a number of those buckets came on the fastbreak.
Moving Clark off the ball
Right from the opening tip, Nika Muhl made it clear that Clark was not going to have an easy night. Muhl's aggressive and physical approach, both on and off the ball, was frustrating Clark and making it difficult for Iowa to operate the way they wanted to on offense. Clark's two points in the first quarter were the fewest she's had in a quarter of an NCAA Tournament game in her career, and she finished the first half with six points on 3 of 11 from the field, including 0 of 6 from 3-point land.
It was notable, then, that Clark's first shot and make of the second half came on a possession where she did not bring the ball up the floor. Instead, Marshall did so, and Clark eventually came and got it on a dribble hand off. She then went immediately into a mis-direction set with staggered screens that freed her up for a wide open 3.
Later in the frame, she was again off the ball and ran off a number of screens until the freshman Shade switched onto her. Finally, after an immense amount of work, Clark broke free, took a pass from Hannah Stuelke and buried a 3 while being fouled. She then made the free throw to convert the four-point play and turn a five-point UConn lead into a one-point game.
Drive, drive, drive
Muhl led the charge with her effort against Clark, but the rest of the Huskies were playing just as fiercly on the defensive end. The best way to beat that type of on-ball pressure is to drive past it, but that's much easier said than done, and in the first half the Hawkeyes were not having much success. They nearly had as many turnovers (12) as points in the paint (16).
After halftime, it was like the Hawkeyes were a completely different team. Time and again they forced their way into the paint, and took care of the ball in the process. "I thought we took better care of the ball in the second half," Bluder said. "I think in the second half we only had four turnovers. We really did a lot better job composure-wise in the second half."
Instead of coughing the ball up, the Hawkeyes were manufacturing shots for one another. We saw Clark do so on multiple occasions to create layups for Stuelke.
Perhaps more importantly, though, Clark's teammates got in on the act. None more so than Kate Martin, who bounced back from a rough first half to deliver three crucial baskets in the fourth quarter. She scored off the bounce three times down the stretch, including a tough fadeaway over Paige Bueckers and a beautiful spinning layup that would be the Hawkeyes' final field goal of the game.
"I think that's what you're gonna see at this point, they're really gonna sell out on me," Clark said. "I thought my teammates stepped up and did a really good job, made some big baskets when we needed it. I couldn't be more proud of them. It takes all five of us."
The 26 points Iowa scored in the first half were tied for their fewest all season. In the second half, they responded by hanging 45 on UConn while shooting 53.3% from the field. Iowa has succeeded all season long by outscoring their opponents, and they did so again on Friday, just barely, thanks to some major second half adjustments.