Cleveland could not have asked for a better semifinal matchup than the one it was given between Iowa and Connecticut on Friday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
It wasn’t given the ending that it deserved, though.
The sport’s two brightest stars, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers put on a show for nearly the entire 40 minutes. It was the type of show that deserved an award-winning finish. As Iowa led 70-69, UConn had the ball with less than 10 seconds following a defensive stop. The moment was setting up for Bueckers to stare down Clark – and the rest of her Iowa teammates – and win or lose the game.
Until that moment was taken away by a whistle.
UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards was called for an illegal screen with four seconds left on the clock, giving the ball back to Iowa and effectively ending the game.
Not Bueckers deciding the game by making a tough jumper, not Clark with a defensive stop or coming back down the floor with a bucket of her own, not one of the other role players stepping up to etch their name into the history books.
An illegal screen.
Was it the correct call? Sure. There’s a strong case that Edwards was moving. But it wasn’t a play that absolutely needed to be called. Had there been no whistle, there likely would not have been uproar. If Bueckers would’ve nailed a jumper, it would’ve been an appropriate moment in her comeback story. If she had missed, Iowa and Clark would have earned their way back to the championship game for the second consecutive year because they were the better team.
"There's probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma says after the game.
While that might be hyperbole, there are far more moving screens that go uncalled than called during a basketball game at this level. To see one called in that moment, even if it falls under the definition of an illegal screen, while not being flagrant, took away from a moment that the game, and the sport as a whole deserved.
Bueckers handled it in a mature way after the game, answering questions about the call and the season for roughly 40 minutes in a way that would make you think she has been in the spotlight since she was 12 years old (she has).
"I could have done a better job so the game wasn't left up to chance, left up to one call,” she says.
Again, she’s correct about this. She could have been better. Both teams could have been better in that game. But both teams played at a level that set up for an all-time moment for the sport, and it was hard to ask for much more than that, except that we didn’t get it.
Instead of the sports world talking about how great Clark was in the second half or how Bueckers has come back from an injury-riddled couple of years to reach the pinnacle of the sport, the conversation is about a judgment call made by an official. In some respects, maybe that’s a sign the women’s game truly has arrived, but it will always bring the question of what great moment did the world possibly miss out on because of a whistle.
For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.
Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.