Caitlin Clark (22) of the Iowa Hawkeyes and her teammates celebrate after beating the LSU Tigers 94-45 in the Elite Eight round on April 1, 2024 in Albany, New York.
Sarah Stier/Getty Images
ALBANY, N.Y. — Caitlin Clark had 41 points and 12 assists in a sensational performance as Iowa knocked defending national champion LSU out of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a 94-87 victory on Monday night, advancing the Hawkeyes to their second straight Final Four.
Top-seeded Iowa (33-4) will play either UConn or Southern California in the national semifinals Friday night in Cleveland.
Monday’s highly anticipated matchup was a rematch of last year’s national championship game won by LSU, which drew a record 9.9 million viewers. Both teams wished that this meeting had come later in the tournament instead of with a Final Four berth at stake, but that was out of their control.
Clark, who also scored 41 points in the regional finals last year, and Angel Reese of LSU put on a memorable show for the sold-out crowd and the millions watching.
With the game tied at 45 after an entertaining first half, Clark took over in the third quarter. The NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader hit four 3-pointers, each deeper than the previous one. Her fourth of the quarter, from her signature logo range, made it 61-52. It also was the 538th of her career which made her the all-time leader in that category among NCAA Division I players, passing Oklahoma’s Taylor Robertson.
Flau’jae Johnson scored 23 points for LSU (31-6), which fell short of becoming the first repeat champion since UConn in 2016. Reese finished with 17 points and 20 rebounds.