DALLAS (AP) 鈥 Kim Mulkey returned home to Louisiana wanting to bring LSU its first basketball championship. The Hall of Fame coach did just that in only her second year at the school.
Her Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 on Sunday and win the first basketball title, men's or women's, in school history.
鈥淚 turn around and look at the Final Four banners (in the home arena), nowhere did it say national champion,鈥 Mulkey said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I came home to do.鈥
The victory made Mulkey the first women's coach to win national titles at two different schools. She won three at Baylor before leaving for LSU two years ago.
鈥淐oaches coach a lifetime and this is the fourth time I鈥檝e been blessed," Mulkey said. 鈥淣ever in the history of LSU basketball, men or women, has (anybody) ever played for a championship.鈥
The feisty and flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who wore a sparkly, golden, tiger-striped outfit, now has the third-most national titles behind Geno Auriemma's 11 and Pat Summitt's eight. Mulkey has never lost in a championship game.
鈥淢y tears are tears of joy," she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 so happy for everybody back home in Louisiana.鈥
Clark, , couldn't lead the Hawkeyes to their first national title despite one of the greatest individual performances in NCAA Tournament history. The junior finished with 30 points. She scored 40 in the semifinals to one game after she had the in NCAA history in the Elite Eight.
The dazzling guard set the NCAA record for points in a tournament, passing the 177 that Sheryl Swoopes scored in 1993 en route to leading Texas Tech to the title. Clark ended her tournament with 191.
The 102 points broke the previous high for a championship game, surpassing the 97 that Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.
鈥淪o much for preaching defense and rebounding,鈥 Mulkey said, laughing.
Taking in the game was first lady Jill Biden, who sat in a suite above the court with tennis great Billie Jean King.
Mulkey said she hadn't met the first lady yet but told the AP that if the team was invited to the White House, she'd go.
Jasmine Carson scored 22 points, Alexis Morris added 21 and Angel Reese had 15 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (34-2).
鈥淚t鈥檚 no one-man show around here. When I go down, the next man is up,鈥 said Reese, who was honored as the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. "Every single time, every time I go out or Alexis goes out, everybody always comes to step up.鈥
Trailing by 21 points early in the third quarter, Iowa started hitting from the outside to go on a 15-2 run, hitting four 3-pointers and converting a 3-point play to get within 65-57.
The Hawkeyes (31-7) trailed 73-64 with 1:03 left in the third quarter when Clark was called for a technical foul. She swatted the ball away on the floor after a foul call against a teammate. That counted as a personal foul for her, her fourth of the game.
鈥淚 thought they called it very, very tight,鈥 Clark said. 鈥淗it with a technical foul for throwing the ball under the basket 鈥 sometimes that鈥檚 how things go.鈥
Clark played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls but couldn't get the Hawkeyes much closer.
鈥淭hey really played well, they were ready to go. They did a great job. I鈥檓 just so proud of my team,鈥 Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. 鈥淭his is brutal, it鈥檚 really tough to walk out of that locker room today and not be able to coach Monika (Czinano) and McKenna (Warnock) again. I鈥檓 very thankful for the season we had and don鈥檛 want to take anything away from that.鈥
After Katari Poole hit a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey started weeping.
鈥淲ith about 1:30 to go, I couldn鈥檛 hold it. I got very emotional,鈥 Mulkey said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not like me, but I knew we would hold on and win this game. I don鈥檛 what it was, but I lost it. Very emotional and tears of joy. Don't know if it's the mere fact that we're doing it in my second year back home or that I am back home."
A few seconds later after another LSU basket, Reese taunted Clark by putting her hand in front of her face with a 鈥測ou can鈥檛 see me" gesture and then pointed to her ring finger.
As the final seconds ticked off, Mulkey and Reese hugged, setting off a wild celebration by the Tigers.
The game was tight for the first 15 minutes before Carson got hot from the outside. She made all six of her shots in the second quarter, including four 3-pointers. After one of them, she threw her hands in the air, which Mulkey mimicked on the sidelines.
For good measure, the graduate student banked in a shot just before the halftime buzzer to give the Tigers a 59-42 lead at the break. It was the of a championship game, breaking the record held by Tennessee since 1998.
LSU shot 58% from the field in the opening 20 minutes, including going nine for 12 from behind the arc. The Tigers finished the game shooting 54% from the field, including making 11 of 17 3-pointers.
Clark had 16 points and five assists before picking up her third foul with 3:56 to go in the half, which didn鈥檛 go over well with the sellout crowd of more than 19,000 fans.
Before Sunday, Carson had gone scoreless in five of her seven postseason games in her career. She had 11 points in this NCAA Tournament before the finale.
鈥淚 would definitely say this is the game of my life because I won a national championship on the biggest stage possible in college,鈥 Carson said. 鈥淲hen I woke up I just wanted to win 鈥 do anything my team needed in this game, whether it was defense, rebounding, supporting them. I scored tonight and that鈥檚 what pushed us and got us momentum.鈥
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