Sad report:Hannah Stuelke has officially announced her leaving Due to comeback of…
With experience competing against the best, Southeastern Louisiana entered the NCAA women’s tournament. After playing at Utah, a 2-seed in Greenville 2, the Lady Lions returned to their home state to play at LSU, a 3-seed in the same regional, as part of their West Coast road trip to start the season.
Ayla Guzzardo, the head coach of the Lions, stated, “Each of them had a very important piece to their puzzle.” But I’ll be honest. There is nothing like Caitlin Clark that we have seen.
In the opening round of the Seattle 4 regional on Friday, the No. 15-seeded Lions were swiftly overtaken by the No. 2-seeded Iowa Hawks. They eventually lost 95-43, a worse margin of defeat than their previous worsts against Utah (37 points) and LSU (8).
A second sell-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena audience erupted in cheers when the Iowa starters were replaced early in the fourth inning. According to ESPN, tickets sold out in 52 minutes and were being resold for twice as much as the next most expensive first-round location in Connecticut. Before the tournament, Iowa had the second-highest attendance average in the US, with 10,738 fans per game; this would set the conference record, which was held by Wisconsin (10,455 in 1997–98).
With 26 points, 12 assists, and 7 rebounds in just 29 minutes, Clark led all scorers. She was the only player with two 20-point games and ten assists in a tournament; it was her second game of that kind.
Guzzardo remarked, “What she can do with the ball from scoring, advantage to her passing.” That’s probably when we almost turned into “fans” on the sidelines, saying things like, “Oh, that was a great pass.” Her abilities have simply amazed me.
Although Clark, a National Player of the Year candidate from nearby West Des Moines, is a major part of Iowa’s (27-6) success, her contributions are limited by her teammates’ ability. Her three highest-scoring games this season—45 points against NC State in December—were two of the losses.
Monika Czinano, her paint partner for five years, contributes significantly to this complementing output and rounds out the “Law Firm,” as they are collectively referred to. The Hawkeyes need their hometown X factor, who delivered once more on Friday, to advance past the second round, where they were upset the previous season, and make a Final Four run, something they have only done once since 1993.
Hannah Stuelke, a 6-foot-2 rookie forward who was born and raised less than 30 miles from Iowa’s stadium, finished the game with a perfect record of four games and three 5-of-5 performances, scoring 13 points in 14 minutes.
