Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark made headlines for different reasons as the LSU Tigers won their first-ever national basketball championship.
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The Iowa Hawkeyes were betting favorites by 3.5 points ahead of the game’s start. However, the Tigers took charge early on in the game, winning both the first and the second quarters. The halftime score was 59-42 in LSU’s favor as they looked to run away with the game.
Iowa made a mini-comeback early in the 3rd period, reducing the deficit to 9 points at one point. However, they never got close enough to cause serious trouble to the Tigers, who’d only lost 2 games all season long.
With the game out of reach, LSU’s star defender Angel Reese made it a point to ‘confront’ Caitlin. She didn’t appear to actually say anything to the consensus National Player of the Year, though.
Clark had used John Cena’s ‘You Can’t See Me’ celebration during their game against Louisville in the Elite Eight after making her 6th 3-pointer of that game. She’d also talked some trash late in the game with a 15-point lead.
Angel Reese explained her gesture to Caitlin Clark post-game
Reese – a unanimous First Team All-American herself – wasn’t particularly bothered by accusations of classlessness flung her way for the gesture. In a post-game interview, she claimed to have been treated differently, indicating some double standards by the media:
“All year I was critiqued about who I was. I don’t fit the narrative. I don’t fit in a box that y’all want me to be in. I’m too hood. I’m too ghetto. Y’all told me that all year.”
“But when other people do it, y’all say nothing. So this was for the girls that look like me, that’s going to speak up on what they believe in.”
Caitlin Clark set a bunch of records despite the loss
Caitlin Clark scored 191 total points, setting a new record for a player in a single NCAA Tournament — men’s or women’s. Her 60 total assists set a new record for a player in single women’s tournament. She fell just shy of Mark Wade’s 61 assists for UNLV in 1987, which is the men’s mark.
During the Hawkeyes’ Elite Eight clash against Louisville, she became the first player in NCAA history (men’s or women’s) to score a 40-point triple-double.
Clark had another 41-point game in the Final Four clash against South Carolina. She became the only player in tournament history with back-to-back 40-point games.
