On Friday night in Cleveland,
Caitlin Clark and Iowa defeated Paige Bueckers 71-69 to advance to
the national title game against undefeated South Carolina – but not
without some late-game drama.
With Iowa just leading by one
70-69 with 9 seconds left, UConn had possession for the final shot
in the game. Out of the timeout, the Huskies tried to run a split
action for Bueckers with Aaliyah Edwards screening and Nika Muhl
passing the ball. As the screen was set with Bueckers veering back
towards Muhl to receive the pass and get ready to shoot, Hawkeyes
guard Gabbie Marshall fought over the screen by Edwards which ended
up with the play getting called for an offensive foul for setting
an illegal screen with just around 3 seconds left in the
game.
OFFENSIVE FOUL OR NOT? 🤔pic.twitter.com/rxB7d3Lydk
— BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews)
April 6, 2024
It was a questionable foul call,
to say the least – sparking a debate each with contrasting sides to
tell.
It set the internet ablaze and
everyone was talking about it. Notable NBA and WNBA stars each
chimed in on X with their thoughts on the questionable call, citing
how the players should decide the outcome of the game with their
plays whether it be good or bad rather than laying it up for the
referees to decide.
NAAAAAHHHHHH!!! I ain’t rolling with that
call.— LeBron James (@KingJames)
April 6, 2024
To call that on a game deciding play is so
wrong WOW— Kelsey Plum (@Kelseyplum10)
April 6, 2024
SportsCenter host Scott Van Pelt
and ESPN Women’s Basketball analyst Andraya Carter didn’t agree
with the call either.
“I hated the call. You’ve got to
give Gabbie Marshall credit for trying to fight over the screen.
That’s what drew the refs’ attention in,” Carter said on
SportsCenter after the game. “But to me, now that final play it’s
not about Iowa’s defense. It’s about the call the referee made.
There was a slight lean, maybe Aaliyah Edwards’ elbow was slightly
out. But to be honest the calls were even for both sides. There
were missed calls for Iowa. There were missed contacts for UConn.
To make that call at the very end of the game – to me, it took away
the opportunity for players to make plays. … To be honest, that
call sucked.”
WNBA legends Diana Taurasi and
Sue Bird, who had their ESPN segment ‘The Bird and Taurasi Show’
grace the Final Four, also shared their thoughts in real-time with
UConn legend Breanna Stewart while commentating and watching the
game live.
3 uconn huskies react to the ‘offensive
foul’ pic.twitter.com/wFWCbVYTMG— jaiden (@steph_turkey)
April 6, 2024
“Oh my god,” expressed a visibly
disappointed Taurasi. “Wow, what an unfortunate time to call an
offensive foul. Just know how to ruin the game – oh my god that’s
terrible. It didn’t even get her open – that’s a tough play. We
always talk about letting the players decide the game, especially
in a benign call like that. It’s just tough to end the game like
that.”
Legendary coach Geno Auriemma
could not hide his disappointment as well in the post-game
conference, saying UConn maybe should just get better at not
setting illegal screens. “There’s probably an illegal screen call
you could make on every single possession, and I just know there
were three or four called on us – and I don’t think any were called
on them.”
Clark and Final Four hero Hannah
Stuelke – who played perhaps the best game of her life by scoring
23 points – thought their teammate Marshall did a good job of
fighting over the screen, praising how she has been one of the
nation’s best defenders.
“Gabbie is great in those
situations. She always comes up with big plays, a block, or
whatever,” Stuelke said. “You always see it time and time again,
(Marshall) does not get enough credit for what she does,” Clark
added. “She guards one of the best players in the country and it
challenges her quite a bit. Paige had a great game but I thought
Gabbie just played great defense on her. Even when Paige made some
tough baskets, Gabbie just responded and kept going up there and
guarded her.”
Despite the tough loss, Bueckers
took the high road and remained a positive attitude after what
transpired late in the game.
“Players play and players decide
the game. Everybody can make a big deal out of one single play but
one single play doesn’t win or lose a basketball game,” Bueckers
admitted. “… You can look at one play and say oh that killed us
or that hurt us. We should have done a better job, I should have
done a better job making sure didn’t leave the game up to
that.”
