NCAA Tournament 2023
- LSU Tigers 102-85 Iowa Hawkeyes
- Kim Mulkey now has titles with two different schools
Associated Press
Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 in Sunday’s national championship game to win the first basketball title in school history.
The win made Mulkey the first women’s coach to win national championships at two different schools. She won three at Baylor before joining LSU two years ago. Feisty and flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who wore a glittery gold tiger stripe outfit, now has four career titles – the third-most all-time behind Geno Auriemma’s 11 and Pat Summitt’s 8. Mulkey has never lost in a championship game. Angel Reese, who was outstanding throughout the tournament for LSU, finished the game with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Jasmine Carson scored 22 points and Alexis Morris added 21 for LSU.
Aliyah Boston vs. Caitlin Clark could become one of the great rivalries in US sports
Trailing 21 points early in the third quarter, Iowa started hitting from the outside for a 15-2 run, hitting four three-pointers and having a three-point game to go 65-57.
The Hawkeyes were 73-64, 1:03 down in the third quarter when Clark was called out for a technical foul. She batted the ball away when it was on the ground after a foul on a teammate. That counted as a personal foul for her, her fourth of the game. Clark played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls but didn’t get much closer to the Hawkeyes.
After Katari Poole hit a three-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey started crying. A few seconds later after another LSU basket, Reese taunted Clark by holding her hand in front of her face in a “You can’t see me” gesture.
As the final seconds ticked by, Mulkey and Reese embraced, prompting a wild celebration from the Tigers.
The loss ended one of Clark’s greatest individual performances in NCAA tournament history. The junior guard finished on Sunday with 30 points. She scored 40 points in the semifinals to knock out undefeated South Carolina in one game after having the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA history in the Elite Eight.
The guard, who grew up in Iowa, set the NCAA record for points in a tournament, surpassing the 177 Sheryl Swoopes scored in 1993 en route to leading Texas Tech to the title that year. Clark finished her tournament with 191.
The 102 points broke the previous all-time high for a championship game and surpassed the 97 that Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.
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