By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
ALBANY, N.Y. – It’s Round 2 of last year’s NCAA women’s basketball national championship game that elevated the sport to unparalleled heights of popularity.
Defending national champ LSU and Iowa meet again in Monday night’s Albany Regional II championship at 6 p.m. in MVP Arena, almost a year after the Tigers’ 17-point title game win over the Hawkeyes drew 9.9 million TV viewers.
“Didn’t that national championship game have the highest ratings ever in women’s basketball?” said LSU’s Kim Mulkey, hoping to get to the Final Four for the sixth time in her 24 seasons as head coach. “You’re probably going to anticipate this one will, too, but it needs to be at the Final Four.”
The winner advances to a Final Four date next Friday in Cleveland against Monday night’s Portland Regional 3 winner between Connecticut and USC.
No. 3 seed LSU (31-5) returns just three players who accounted for just 30,3 percent of the Tigers’ scoring in last April’s 102-85 win over the Hawkeyes. No. 1 seed Iowa (32-4) returns seven players who scored 70.1 percent of the Hawkeyes’ points in the loss.
The two stars that created last year’s post-title game buzz that hasn’t yet died – LSU junior forward Angel Reese and Iowa senior guard Caitlin Clark – are front and center for the rematch.
It’s been that way since the closing moments of last year’s game when Reese pantomimed the same “You can’t see me gesture” at Clark that Clark did to South Carolina in the semifinal upset of the Gamecocks. Reese also gestured with her ring finger to signify LSU had just won a national championship ring.
Reese was publicly criticized for her alleged lack of sportsmanship, but Clark came to Reese’s defense citing it was just an exchange between two highly competitive players.
“If I see you walking down the street, it’s like, `Hey, girl, what’s up, let’s hang out,” said SEC Player of the Year Reese of her relationship with Clark. “People just take it like we hate each other. Me and Caitlin Clark don’t hate each other. I want everybody to understand that. It’s just a super competitive game.
“I have plenty of friends on the court that I talk to outside of the game, but like when I get between those lines, we’re not friends. We’re not buddies. I’m going to talk trash to you. I’m going to do whatever it takes to get in your head the whole entire game, but after the game we can kick it.”
Clark, the national Player of the Year and the media darling after becoming the all-time leading scorer in Division 1 women’s basketball, agrees with Reese.
“The main similarity is how bad and how competitive we are,” Clark said of her and Reese. “We both grew up loving this game, and we’re going to do anything we can to help our teams win. There’s definitely that competitive fire.”
Last year, Clark scored 30 points vs. LSU on 9 of 22 field goal shooting including 8 of 19 3-pointers. She was mostly guarded by now-graduated Alexis Morris and returnee Last-Tear Poa.
“Caitlin Clark is a generational player,” Mulkey said. She’s not all about threes. She can pass the ball. She can take you off the dribble.
“You’re not going to stop her. You just hope that you can contain her a little bit and make sure that you do your job on the other four players. They play their roles extremely well. They have such a connection with Clark.”
LSU defenders know Clark is in shooting range when she crosses halfcourt.
“Last year I got to switch on her early in the game,” LSU sophomore guard Flau’jae Johnson said of Clark. “I was like, `She’s not going to pull that (take a shot) for real,’ and then she pulled it for real from half court, and she made it. I was like `Whoa.’
“There’s no stopping her, but containing her, I’m going to take on that challenge.”
Johnson is also going to provide Iowa with plenty of problems.
In her last six games dating back to the last game of the regular season, Johnson is averaging 19.7 points and 5.8 rebounds and is shooting 56.2 percent (41 of 73) from the field, 61.1 percent (11 of 18) in 3-pointers and 86.2 (25 of 29) from the free throw line.
“It seems like she has really elevated her game throughout this tournament,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said of Johnson. “She’s really hard to guard. As a sophomore, she seems to have great leadership skills and great emotion. It seems like the team kind of goes with her emotion. She’s an unbelievable player.”
No. 3 seed LSU (31-5) vs. No. 1 seed Iowa (32-4), Albany Regional II finals
WHEN, WHERE: Monday 6 p.m. CT, MVP Arena, Albany, N.Y.
TV-RADIO: ESPN, LSU radio network which is streamed on LSUsports.com
SERIES: LSU is 1-0 vs. Iowa, blasting the Hawkeyes 102-85 in last season’s NCAA championship game.
HOW THEY GOT HERE: LSU beat Rice 70-60 in 1st round, Middle Tennessee 63-56 in 2nd round, UCLA 79-69 in the Sweet 16. Iowa beat Holy Cross 91-65 in 1st round, West Virginia 64-54 in 2nd round, Colorado 89-68 in the Sweet 16.
PROJECTED STARTING LINEUPS
LSU
G – Hailey Van Lith, Gr. 5-7, 11.7 ppg, 3.7 apg
G – Mikaylah Williams, Fr., 6-0, 14.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg
G – Flau’jae Johnson, So., 5-10, 14.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg
F – Angel Reese, Jr., 6-3, 18.7 ppg, 13.2 rpg
F-G – Aneesah Morrow, Jr., 6-1, 16.5 ppg, 9.9 RPG
IOWA
G – Caitlin Clark, Sr., 6-0, 31.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg
G – Kate Martin, grad student, 6-0, 12.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg
G – Gabbie Marshall, 5th yr sr., 6.2 ppg, 1 rpg
G – Sydney Affolter, Jr., 5-11, 8.1 ppg, 6.6 rpg
F – Hannah Stuelke, So., 6-2, 14 ppg, 6.8 RPG
TALE OF THE TAPE
(National ranking in parenthesis)
LSU/IOWA
Scoring offense
85.9 (3) 92.9 (1)
Scoring defense
62.5 (128) 71.1 (304)
Scoring margin
23.4 (3) 20.8 (5)
Rebounds PG
46.03 (4) 41.92 (17)
Rebound margin
12.6 (2) 7.6 (19)
FG pct.
46.52 (17) 50.02 (2)
FG pct. Defense
36.6 (21) 39.6 (137)
3-pt. pct.
32.69 (97) 37.7 (9)
FT pct.
74.72 (74) 78.07 (14)
Turnover margin
+4.44 (24) -.56 (162)
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com