Lisa Bluder shares thoughts on Iowa foul trouble, highlights how they need to complete the comeback
Iowa is in a very bad spot heading into the fourth quarter of the national championship game against LSU. The Hawkeyes have had to deal with an offensive explosion from the Tigers while also handling some officiating that hasn’t gone their way.
Still, Lisa Bluder says they have no intention of going away from Caitlin Clark even though she has picked up her fourth foul due to a highly controversial technical. Considering her importance and the stage they’re on, she says they’re going to ride with her until the very end.
“It’s a tough one. Obviously, three of our starters with four fouls is not a good thing. But, I mean, we’re gonna go back to Caitlin,” Bluder said to Holly Rowe entering the fourth quarter. “I mean it’s the national championship game. We’ve got 10 minutes left, we’re down nine. We’ve got to go with Caitlin.”
From there, she highlighted how Iowa could best get back in the final 10 minutes. Over the course of the third quarter, the Hawkeyes cut LSU’s lead to single digits several times. In doing so, Bluder noted the stops as the only way that her team is going to have a sot by the end of the game.
“It was getting some stops finally,” said Bluder. “We finally got some stops.”
Iowa wouldn’t get the stops they needed as they would fall to LSU in the national title games and fall just one game shy of ultimate glory.
Clark called for questionable technical foul in title game
Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark is not only known for her dazzling play on the court but her fiery, competitive nature. And, in the national championship game versus LSU, that competitive fire may have gotten the best of her on a controversial foul call.
Down 73-64 in the third quarter, Iowa center Monika Czinano was called for her fourth foul of the game. That call did not necessarily come to the liking of Clark. After the call, without saying a word to an LSU player or an official, Clark casually tossed the basketball behind her. That evidently did not come to the liking of the referees.
A technical foul was called on Clark for the ball toss, a questionable call in a crucial moment of the biggest women’s basketball game of the year. The call was one that the Hawkeyes and many others disagreed with, and can be seen below.