Caitlin Clark on advancing to Final Four: 'We want to win two more'

Caitlin Clark enjoyed the moment as Iowa clinched its spot in the Final Four, but as Kobe Bryant said: “the job’s not finished.”

Iowa got to this point last season, even to the national championship game. However, the Hawkeyes fell to LSU but Clark and her team got their payback.

In a highly anticipated contest, Clark couldn’t help but feel proud after conquering the champs. But there’s more to do.

“Yeah, like you said, I feel like it’s amazing to be back in the Final Four,” Clark said postgame. “It’s so hard to get there, especially with this region and how loaded this region was. We told ourselves we’re the 1 seed for a reason. We’ve earned this. We deserve to be in these moments. We’re prepared for these moments.

“I think we came out here and our second and third quarters we played really good basketball. And LSU is a really good team. They’re hard to guard. They’re such good one-on-one players. They break you down. They make tough shots. They killed us on the glass.”

Despite the intense fight from LSU, Clark could not stop draining threes and the Hawkeyes kept their lead throughout the second half.

“But we were just resilient,” Clark said. “We never hung our head when things didn’t go our way, and that can get you a long way. I’m just proud of this group to go back to the Final Four. You enjoy this and then you get to Cleveland and you start prepping for your next game. We want to win two more, and I think we have the power to do that.”

It was payback on the surface after last season. But Clark maintained she and her team just focused on winning a tough game.

“To be honest, no. I feel like we prepared for this game,” Clark said. W”e focus on Iowa, we do what Iowa does, and we’ll come out on top. And that was kind of Coach Bluder’s message. It’s not about last year. You worry too much about the past, you’re going to get caught up in that. It’s about being present, being where your feet are.

“Don’t worry about being in the Final Four, be in this moment, be in the Elite 8, enjoy that and soak that in. That’s what’s going to allow you to win 40 minutes, and that’s exactly what we did. I thought we just played a really good basketball game. When they went on their runs, we always had an answer, and that’s all you can ask of your team.”