ALBANY, N.Y. — Ever the entertainer, Caitlin Clark delivered the show the entire country has been clamoring to see.
Iowa and LSU in a rematch of last year’s title game. Clark and Angel Reese, toe to toe again, only one of them advancing to the Final Four.
“I think everybody is pretty excited for it. Twelve million people tuned in last year to see this game, might be the same this time,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said after the Hawkeyes routed Colorado 89-68 to set up a date with LSU in the Elite Eight on Monday night.
“These are two really good basketball teams, and it’s almost unfortunate they’re meeting this early,” Bluder added. “But everybody that’s left now is really good. LSU is certainly that.”
The game actually peaked at 12.6 million viewers, but Bluder’s point is made. Clark and Reese’s trash talking and playmaking in and ahead of last year’s game was an absolute gift to women’s sports. The interest in women’s sports that already was growing exploded exponentially, and that’s only continued this season.
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That they are meeting again in this year’s NCAA Tournament — the last for Clark and possibly for Reese — is a gift to us all.
‘Anytime you have a chance to go up against somebody you lost to, it brings a little more energy,’ Clark said. ‘At this point in the tournament every single team is good, whether you’re playing West Virginia, whether you’re playing Colorado, whether you’re playing LSU, you prep the exact same way. You come in with the exact same mindset.
‘Overall it’s just going to be a really great game for women’s basketball.’
Making it that much better was there were times, both during the season and during this tournament, that it seemed as if it wouldn’t happen. Even after they were put on a collision course by the selection committee.
What, you think the committee was going to pass up an opportunity to stage a rematch? Committee members are fans of the game, too.
LSU, a No. 3 seed, has had a streaky season and got all it could handle in its first-round game against Rice. Reese had a season-low 10 points against the Owls, though she did have 19 rebounds.
Iowa has looked vulnerable since the Big Ten Tournament title game. The Hawkeyes needed overtime to beat Nebraska for a three-peat before being pushed by Holy Cross and pushed around by West Virginia. It looked as if the frenzy that surrounded them during Clark’s assault on the record books had finally caught up to them, and it didn’t help that they’d lost starter Molly Davis to injury in the regular-season finale.
But Clark plays best when the spotlight is on her, and Saturday’s game was no different.
She set the tone for the Hawkeyes with a driving layup on Iowa’s first possession and fed Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin for the next two buckets. After Jaylyn Sherrod’s layup cut Iowa’s lead to three, Clark fed Martin and then Hannah Stuelke to start an Iowa run.
By the time Clark hit a step-back 3-pointer that she might as well have taken from Massachusetts, Iowa was up by 14 and the game was effectively over. Colorado managed to get within single digits twice more in the first half, only to have Clark answer back each time.
Iowa led by double figures the entire second half.
“This was the first time in about three games we were able to put together what felt like a complete basketball game on both ends of the floor, whether it was in transition or on defense or really executing our offense,” Clark said. “I think being able to build off that and take that momentum into our next game.”
Even more important than Clark getting her groove back, however, was the rest of the Iowa team finding theirs, too.
Four other Hawkeyes finished in double figures, including a double-double by Stuelke (11 points, 10 rebounds) and a near-one by Martin (14 points, nine boards). Sydney Affolter, pressed into the starting lineup after Davis’ injury, had a monster performance, going a perfect 6 for 6 from the floor and finishing with 15, her second-most of the season. Marshall finished with 14.
The Hawkeyes also held Colorado below 38% shooting and won the rebounding battle, 43-34.
“Obviously there’s a lot of attention on Caitlin, and she’s going to get one or two people who have to look at her throughout the whole possession. So I think that leaves other people open,” Marshall said. “And I think that’s kind of what you saw tonight is just a complete basketball game.”
It couldn’t have come at a better time, because Reese and LSU await.
In a season when almost every game Clark and Iowa played seemed like a historic event, this one’s going to be truly epic.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.