LSU beats Iowa 102-85 to win first national championship

DALLAS (AP) —Kim Mulkey returned home to Louisiana wanting to bring LSU itsfirst basketball championship. The Hall of Fame coach did just thatin only her second year at the school.

Her Tigersused a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa102-85 on Sunday and win the first basketball title, men’s orwomen’s, in school history.

“I turnaround and look at the Final Four banners (in the home arena),nowhere did it say national champion,” Mulkey said. “That’s what Icame home to do.”

The victorymade Mulkey the first women’s coach to win national titles at twodifferent schools. She won three at Baylor before leaving for LSUtwo years ago.

“Coachescoach a lifetime and this is the fourth time I’ve been blessed,”Mulkey said. “Never in the history of LSU basketball, men or women,has (anybody) ever played for a championship.”

The feistyand flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who wore a sparkly, golden,tiger-striped outfit, now has the third-most national titles behindGeno Auriemma’s 11 and Pat Summitt’s eight. Mulkey has never lostin a championship game.

“My tears aretears of joy,” she said. “I’m so happy for everybody back home inLouisiana.”

LSU dropped 102 POINTS to win its firstnational title EVER 🐯🔥 pic.twitter.com/H2ZPuGMj4p

Clark,The Associated Press national playerof the year, couldn’t lead the Hawkeyes to their first nationaltitle despite one of the greatest individual performances in NCAATournament history. The junior finished with 30 points. She scored40 in the semifinals toknock out unbeaten SouthCarolinaone game after she had thefirst 40-pointtriple-doublein NCAA history in the Elite Eight.

The dazzlingguard set the NCAA record for points in a tournament, passing the177 that Sheryl Swoopes scored in 1993 en route to leading TexasTech to the title. Clark ended her tournament with 191.

The 102points broke the previous high for a championship game, surpassingthe 97 that Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.

“So much forpreaching defense and rebounding,” Mulkey said, laughing.

Taking in thegame was first lady Jill Biden, who sat in a suite above the courtwith tennis great Billie Jean King. Mulkey said she hadn’t met thefirst lady yet but told the AP that if the team was invited to theWhite House, she’d go.

JasmineCarson scored 22 points, Alexis Morris added 21 and Angel Reese had15 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (34-2).

“It’s noone-man show around here. When I go down, the next man is up,” saidReese, who was honored as the Most Outstanding Player of the FinalFour. “Every single time, every time I go out or Alexis goes out,everybody always comes to step up.”

Trailing by21 points early in the third quarter, Iowa started hitting from theoutside to go on a 15-2 run, hitting four 3-pointers and convertinga 3-point play to get within 65-57.

The Hawkeyes(31-7) trailed 73-64 with 1:03 left in the third quarter when Clarkwas called for a technical foul. She swatted the ball away on thefloor after a foul call against a teammate. That counted as apersonal foul for her, her fourth of the game.

“I thoughtthey called it very, very tight,” Clark said. “Hit with a technicalfoul for throwing the ball under the basket — sometimes that’s howthings go.”

Clark playedthe entire fourth quarter with four fouls but couldn’t get theHawkeyes much closer.

“They reallyplayed well, they were ready to go. They did a great job. I’m justso proud of my team,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “This is brutal,it’s really tough to walk out of that locker room today and not beable to coach Monika (Czinano) and McKenna (Warnock) again. I’mvery thankful for the season we had and don’t want to take anythingaway from that.”

After KatariPoole hit a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey startedweeping.

“With about1:30 to go, I couldn’t hold it. I got very emotional,” Mulkey said.“That’s not like me, but I knew we would hold on and win this game.I don’t what it was, but I lost it. Very emotional and tears ofjoy. Don’t know if it’s the mere fact that we’re doing it in mysecond year back home or that I am back home.”

A few secondslater after another LSU basket, Reese taunted Clark by putting herhand in front of her face with a “you can’t see me” gesture andthen pointed to her ring finger.

As the finalseconds ticked off, Mulkey and Reese hugged, setting off a wildcelebration by the Tigers.

The game wastight for the first 15 minutes before Carson got hot from theoutside. She made all six of her shots in the second quarter,including four 3-pointers. After one of them, she threw her handsin the air, which Mulkey mimicked on the sidelines.

For goodmeasure, the graduate student banked in a shot just before thehalftime buzzer to give the Tigers a 59-42 lead at the break. Itwas themost points ever in the firsthalfof a championship game, breaking the record held byTennessee since 1998.

BeforeSunday, Carson had gone scoreless in five of her seven postseasongames in her career. She had 11 points in this NCAA Tournamentbefore the finale.

“I woulddefinitely say this is the game of my life because I won a nationalchampionship on the biggest stage possible in college,” Carsonsaid. “When I woke up, I just wanted to win — do anything my teamneeded in this game, whether it was defense, rebounding, supportingthem. I scored tonight and that’s what pushed us and got usmomentum.”