DALLAS — Jasmine Carson would have been at the bottom of the pick to click depth chart.
A non-starter averaging 8.6 points per game this season (and 0.0 in the last three competitions), Carson was undoubtedly the deciding factor in the NCAA Women’s National Basketball Championship game.
Carson scored 16 of her 22 points her team scored in a second-quarter rush, and ninth-placed LSU sped past No. 3 Iowa, 102-85, for the title Sunday afternoon at the American Airlines Center.
The title was first for LSU (34-2), fourth as head coach for Kim Mulkey, who won three times at Baylor before flipping the Tigers’ program at warp speed.
LSU was 9-13 two years ago before Mulkey was hired in 2021.
Carson was one of five double-digit Tigers. Alexis Morris added 21 points, LaDazhia Williams 20.
Angel Reese, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds, was named the most outstanding player of the Final Four. Morris and Reese joined her on the all-tournament team, along with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and South Carolina’s Zia Cooke.
Clark scored 30 points and became the all-time leading scorer in an NCAA tournament. Monika Czinano and Kate Martin each came in at 13, Gabbie Marshall at 12.
The Hawkeyes (31-7) took a 9-5 lead, then fouls took their toll on the Hawkeyes.
Czinano and McKenna Warnock each picked up their second staff towards the end of the first quarter.
Nevertheless, Iowa regained the lead at the beginning of the second half with 30:29 and 32:31.
But Carson continued her killing spree to lead LSU to a 28-10 blitz in the last 7 minutes of the half. The Tigers led 59-42 at the break when Carson put a 3-pointer on the horn.
LSU was from 3-point range 14 of 71 in the first five games of the tournament. The Tigers were 9 of 12 in Sunday’s first half.
The Tigers extended the lead to 21 before the Hawkeyes played their best stretch of the day.
A 15-2 run in under 3 minutes put Iowa back in the stiffening range at 65-57. Shortly afterwards, Czinano scored on the inside to make it 69:62.
Then, at 73-64, a disastrous sequence ensued for the Hawkeyes. Czinano was called for her third foul, then Clark picked up a technical error for her fourth.
LSU went into the fourth quarter with a 75-64 lead. Kate Martin’s 3-pointer put the Hawkeyes within 77-69, but that was the final score. The Tigers scored the next six.
Czinano fouled at 6:25 left, Warnock at 1:33. These two are the two Hawkeyes who played their last game on Sunday.
– Jeff Linder