ESPN REPORT: Lisa Bluder of the Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball sets to leave the team if He is not provided with…..

DALLAS: Coach Lisa Bluder of the Iowa Hawkeyes described the officiating as “frustrating” after her team’s 102-85 loss to the LSU Tigers in Sunday’s 2023 women’s NCAA title game at the American Airlines Center.

After the game, Bluder said, “I can’t comment on the officials.” I feel like I can’t communicate with them, which is really annoying. Not even will they listen. The annoying thing is that there was never a chance for a dialogue. I understand that your two seniors don’t realize they are seniors, but those two women didn’t deserve to sit on the bench. I’m not sure. Too awful. It is indeed too bad.

By the end of the game, 37 fouls had been called. In the fourth quarter, Hawkeye seniors McKenna Warnock and Monika Czinano, both in her fifth year, fouled out at 6:25 and 1:33, respectively. That is less fouls than South Carolina-Iowa’s national semifinal game on Friday (38); yet, UConn’s 21 in last year’s national championship game was higher than that of either team on Sunday. In this year’s tournament, Ohio State and James Madison combined for 52 fouls in the opening round.

Still, there were 21 foul calls in the first half of the national championship game alone, involving at least two fouls for eight players: Angel Reese, Alexis Morris, Kateri Poole, Sa’Myah Smith, Last-Tear Poa, Caitlin Clark, Czinano, and Warnock.

Stars respond to an exciting women’s final match between LSU and Iowa 98dESPN.com
Bluder also appeared to disagree with Clark’s fourth technical foul, which was called on her at the end of the third quarter. After Reese fouled Czinano, Clark threw the ball out of bounds behind her back. A little while earlier, the Hawkeyes had trimmed a 21-point deficit to seven, but after the tech and Morris’s subsequent free throws, the Tigers increased their advantage to double figures and never looked back.

“We cut it to seven there eventually, but we couldn’t quite get over the hump,” Clark stated. “Having foul trouble can hinder you at times too.”

After the game, pool reporter Lisa Jones, the referee, gave an explanation of the technical foul call.

“Iowa received a delay of game warning in the third period at the 7:28 mark for batting the ball away after a made basket, causing a delay,” Jones explained. “The second offense was when No. 22 from Iowa [Clark] picked up the ball and failed to immediately pass the ball to the nearest official after the whistle was blown … by failing to and it reads, attempting to gain an advantage by interfering with the ball after a goal or by failing to immediately pass the ball to the nearest official after the whistle is blown.”

Clark shared her thoughts about the officiating.

Clark remarked, “I thought they called it very, very tight.” “About the two push-offs in the second quarter, I have no idea. They must have seen that I pushed off since they called it and other things. I then received a technical foul for tossing the ball under the basket in the third quarter.

That is the way things work sometimes. I reasoned that my only options were to react, get back in the game, keep battling, and do my best to assist this team in getting back into it.”

Czinano sidestepped the question about whether the game suffered from the frequent fouls by discussing the officiating.

She declared, “We can’t live in the past.” “We are limited to living in the present. That match took place. Those were indeed calls. We’ll see what people decide to do about it moving ahead.”

The Tigers, especially offensively, made the plays necessary to win the game despite the officiating, making 11 of 17 3-pointers and outscoring Iowa’s bench 30 to 8.

“LSU deserves a great deal of credit,” Clark remarked. “They had an absolutely amazing performance in the game. They made several impressive 3-pointers and jumpers off of ball screens, but sometimes that’s just part of life.