The No. 2 seed Iowa Hawkeyes advanced to the Final Four behind Caitlin Clark registering the first-ever 40-point triple-double in NCAAW Tournament history Sunday night at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. There hadn’t even been a 30-point triple-double before.
Clarks’ 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds allowed the Hawkeyes to impressively defeat the No. 5 seed Louisville Cardinals 97-83 and advance to their second-ever Final Four (first since 1993).
Clark was spectacular in the first half, scoring or assisting on 43 of Iowa’s 48 points.
The biggest storyline of the game was the variety of defensive coverages both Clark and Louisville’s Hailey Van Lith saw. After Louisville opened the game on an 8-0 run with Van Lith scoring six of those points, Iowa switched between a 3-2 zone and a 1-2-2 zone, both with the intent of denying the ball screens in the middle of the floor.
Once it became apparent that Van Lith and teammate Chrislyn Carr were the only scoring threats for Louisville, Iowa then switched to a triangle-and-two, denying touches to both players for the bulk of the second quarter.
However, it’s almost impossible to deny such a gifted scorer like Van Lith, and she responded in a big way, scoring 11 points in the second quarter and chipping Iowa’s lead…
