Controversial foul: Late whistle on UConn’s Edwards helps send Iowa to the title game
CLEVELAND —Paige Bueckers caught a bounce pass from Nika Muhl and prepared to pull up with a chance to extend UConn’s season.
She never got the chance.
Just as the Huskies’ leading scorer rose, the whistle blew. Officials called forward Aaliyah Edwards for an illegal screen after she collided with Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall, who was trying to get by Edwards in pursuit of Bueckers.
The offensive foul with 3.9 seconds left gave the ball back to the Hawkeyes. UConn never got it back in a 71-69 loss that ended the program’s 23rd women’s Final Four appearance one step short of the national title game.
Iowa and Caitlin Clark will face unbeaten South Carolina for the NCAA championship on Sunday. UConn will watch from home, with plenty of time to think about a whistle whose echo will linger into the offseason.
“My point of view, it was pretty clean,” Edwards said.
The officials saw it another way. The play was the third offensive foul called against the Huskies during a physical game that had players on both sides occasionally dropping to the floor.
The 6-foot-3 Edwards didn’t knock the 5-9 Marshall to the ground. But officials saw enough contact to swing momentum one last time.
“I’m happy it was called,” Marshall said. “That was like the third or fourth one of the game.”
Marshall spent most of her 39 minutes on the court trying to slow down Bueckers. The 2021 national player of the year needed 17 shots to reach 17 points. She’ll never know what would have happened if she had been able to get off an 18th, though Bueckers declined to blame the loss on the final sequence.
On Saturday, Marshall said she deleted her social media after receiving “hate comments” related to the game’s ending.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
I hate this. #Hawkeyes senior Gabbie Marshall has gotten angry messages directed at her about the screen call last night so she has decided to delete social media.
"That one play consumed everything."
Video by @SEhrhardtKCCI @KCCINews pic.twitter.com/ZCRwuNpOfq— Scott Reister (@scottreister) April 6, 2024
“Everybody can make a big deal of that one single play, but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game,” Bueckers said. “I feel there were a lot of mistakes that I made that could have prevented that play from even being that big.”
The Huskies led by 12 in the first half and nearly recovered from a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter. UConn called timeout after an Iowa turnover with 9 seconds left. Coming out of the huddle, Marshall was pretty sure she knew who the Huskies would turn to with so much at stake.
“I think I knew the ball was going to go to Paige in that moment and they were going to try and set some screens for her,” Marshall said. “I was just trying to stay on her hip, that was my mentality going into it.”
Marshall never got to Bueckers’ hip. Instead, she caught a piece of Edwards’ left elbow. And when the whistle blew, Marshall pointed the other way as if to say “our ball” while UConn coach Geno Auriemma struggled to control his emotions as a season he’s called one of the most “gratifying” of his Hall of Fame career came to a halt.
“I mean, there’s probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession,” Auriemma said. “I just know there were three or four of them called on us and I don’t think there were any called on them. So I guess we just gotta get better on not setting illegal screens.”
The illegality of the play may be in the eye of the beholder. Hoops luminaries from Kelsey Plum, whose NCAA Division I scoring record was broken by Clark this season, to LeBron James believed the refs should have let it go.
“I ain’t rolling with that call,” James posted on X.
Maybe, but the Hawkeyes are rolling into a meeting with the Gamecocks while UConn’s national championship drought is at eight years and counting.
“There were some decisions that, even myself, I wish I could take back,” Edwards said. “But that’s just how the game went. And we left it out there on the court today.”
News
Social media goes crazy over Matty Healy’s family’s harsh reaction to claims Taylor Swift’s song is about him – and claims he’s ‘very happy in his new relationship’. |T
Matty Healy‘s family have given a withering assessment of his ex Taylor Swift after she appeared to savage him on her new album. Swift, who briefly dated Healy last spring, is widely believed to take aim at her ex in the song…
‘CREEPY’: Caitlin Clark’s ‘horror’ reporter quickly returns to work – but is trolled by fans: ‘Why are you still employed?’ |T
It was business as usual for Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Friday as he returned to work – despite a continuing barrage of abuse over his awkward moment with basketball star Caitlin Clark. Doyel went viral after making a…
Iowa star Gabbie Marshall once opened up about Hawkeyes HC Lisa Bluder’s impact on her career: “Wasn’t just telling me what I needed to hear” |T
Gabbie Marshall is proud to be an Iowa Hawkeye Despite having failed twice to win the national championship, Gabbie Marshall has no regrets about joining Iowa’s women’s basketball program. The 23-year-old Hawkeye joined the program in 2019 and started contributing…
Social media went crazy as Taylor Swift made some interesting references to Travis Kelce on her new album. |T
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift (Photos via Getty Images) Taylor Swift has made some references to her new beau, Travis Kelce, on her newly-released album. The pop star’s highly-anticipated “The Tortured Poets Department” has finally dropped. As expected, most…
Jemele Hill left upset by Caitlin Clark getting her own shoe. |T
Jemele Hill has suggested A’ja Wilson deserves her own signature shoe as well, after it was reported Caitlin Clark would be getting her own line before playing a single game in the WNBA. Clark, according to The Athletic, is set to become just…
Taylor Swift praises boyfriend Travis Kelce on new album! Fans are going crazy over the lyrics about ‘encounter’ in the track. |T
Taylor Swift’s ode to Travis Kelce on new album! Fans go wild over lyric about ‘touchdowns’ on track The Alchemy from The Tortured Poets Department: ‘Trying to be the greatest in the league’ Taylor Swift has dropped her new album…
End of content
No more pages to load