Iowa women's basketball survives late UConn rally to advance to championship game

CLEVELAND — They arrived in the building with the confidence that they belonged, that the I-O-W-A across their jerseys boasted all the firepower to handle the five-letter dynasty on the other side. But this was UConn after all, hardly in the mood to play good sport. The Hawkeyes would have to empty the tank to survive.

Survive, did they ever.

Despite rallying out of a double-digit hole to go up multiple possessions in the closing five minutes, Iowa had to hold off this basketball giant all the way down to the final horn. The drama was deep until the last whistle, but the Hawkeyes are right back where they proclaimed they'd be — four quarters from a national title after Friday's 71-69 Final Four win over the Huskies inside Cleveland's Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Everyone knows who comes next Sunday afternoon.

"Going to the national championship game, everybody's stepping up," said Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark, who fought through a tough shooting first half en route to 21 hard-earned points with nine rebounds and seven assists. "It's not just me. It's not just one player. That's not what this is. We wouldn't be at this point right now if it was just one player. And everybody comes up and makes really big plays when we need them."

There's only one place to start when dissecting this basketball marathon, which packed an evening's worth of tension into just the final 10 seconds.

After a Nika Muhl trey preceded another Iowa turnover — that sequence pulling the Huskies within one point before giving them possession with a chance to swipe it — Iowa was suddenly reeling. It would require one more strong defensive effort to escape this madness.

But just as UConn began to go, Aaliyah Edwards’ moving screen on defensive guru Gabbie Marshall was whistled for an offensive foul, sending possession the Hawkeyes’ way in one chaotic sequence. The Huskies bench erupted in disbelief as Iowa sat just three seconds from advancing.

"I mean, there's probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "I just know there were three or four of them called on us and I don't think there were any called on them. So I guess we just gotta get better on not setting illegal screens."

Tension, though, was far from faded. UConn fouled Clark after the offensive foul and watched stunned as she split two free throws to keep the door cracked. The Huskies, which had a timeout, would've been down two points with roughly two seconds left.

Yet, there was Sydney Affolter, charging in to grab a massive offensive rebound that eventually resulted in a held ball. The Hawkeyes had the possession arrow and dwindled out the last few ticks before jubilation ensued.

“Having that mentality of who wants it more," Affolter said, "it is a lot about heart and hustle. I don’t think anybody’s getting the rebound besides me.”

For as much as a flawless effort seems necessary on this grand stage, the Hawkeyes' Final Four performance offered a lesson on staying true when the turbulence comes. The first half was a disaster. The third quarter was a stabilizer. Only in the final 10 minutes did Iowa firmly yank back momentum.

Once down as many as 12 with Clark stifled more than seemed possible, the Hawkeyes clawed back to even after three and let the building's pro-Iowa energy carry them through with shots finally splashing. Seven of Clark's 21 points arrived in barely two minutes of fourth-quarter clock. A 6-0 surge, of the NBA-run variety Iowa likes to lean on, handed the Hawkeyes a 66-57 advantage with 5:42 left. Several big buckets from Kate Martin (11 points) ended her night on a productive note.

Remaining in reach to that point largely happened on Hannah Stuelke's dominant shoulders. A robust 23 points, on 9-for-12 shooting and 5-for-7 from the line, put her confidence restoration on full display as Iowa turned to its 6-foot-2 sophomore anytime offense was difficult to unlock. Attacking a thin UConn squad that couldn't afford significant foul trouble allowed Stuelke to shine brightest.

"I think from the jump, I was being aggressive," Stuelke said. "I thought I prepared better for this game than I did for the last."

From the jump, though, is where Iowa's issues became glaring. The team that took the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse floor to start hardly resembled the same squad that tore through Albany with a potent offensive attack. Forget struggling to buy buckets; the Hawkeyes had a hard enough time just keeping possession.

Ten turnovers piled up before the second quarter was half over, resulting in four Hawkeyes coughing it up multiple times in the game's opening 14 minutes. By the time Iowa limped to the locker room in a 32-26 hole — lucky for it to even be that manageable — every starter had at least one turnover on the ledger.

"We just talked about valuing the ball," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "We just turned the ball over. Our defense was really pretty good. They scored 13 points off of our turnovers. So we take that out of the mix and it's a totally different half."

Clark wasn't absolved from the sputters. UConn's defensive gameplan on her mirrored what most opponents say they plan to do — relentlessly deny the ball and make the sharpshooting superstar work for every opening — but few can actually morph those words into reality. UConn, though, is no normal foe.

Muhl zipped around right on Clark's hip, successfully picking her up full court so much that other Hawkeyes routinely had to bring the ball up court. After connecting on the game's opening basket, Clark didn't score again until five minutes remained in the second quarter.

"Honestly, like, UConn is a really good defensive team," Clark said, "one of the best defensive teams we've seen all year. I think Nika did a tremendous job guarding me. We got some good looks. They just didn't go in. And sometimes, that's just what happens. We missed some easy bunnies around the rim.

"But I think the best thing about our group is we went into the locker room at halftime and it wasn't, like, 'Oh, come on, you've got to make shots.' It was, 'No, stop turning the ball over and you're going to be perfectly fine. We knew at some point, our shots would go down." 

That happened, just as Iowa predicted. And things appeared promising enough ... until UConn tried to cram a crushing comeback into the final minutes. Iowa's mental maturity was yet again tested to the max in a massive moment.

All that Clark and the Hawkeyes have accomplished seems to be designed for this NCAA Tournament surge, this closing act of Clark's decorated Iowa tenure. She has 40 collegiate minutes remaining with another daunting foe in unbeaten South Carolina waiting in the wings. The Hawkeyes wouldn't be comfortable in this spot without her confidence and Iowa's elite response to it.

That's exactly why the Hawkeyes survived Friday's thriller. And it's why they'll settle for nothing less than slicing down the nets Sunday afternoon.

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.