Teams Enter New Territory
Inferior seeds won out when the No. 3 LSU Tigers and No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes each defeated No. 1 seeds in the Final Four to reach the national championship.
The Tigers eliminated the third No. 1 seed of the tournament by taking down Virginia Tech, and Iowa did the same hours later by taking down top dog South Carolina, despite odds to win College Women’s Basketball having the Gamecocks as the favorite to win the tournament.
LSU remained close with the Hokies until the fourth quarter, when the Tigers were able to pull away to reach their first national title game.
The Tigers will face Iowa, which is also appearing in its first national championship game after knocking off previously undefeated No. 1 South Carolina in a Final Four game that lived up to the hype.
The championship game should be a tight one, with Women’s college basketball odds calling the Hawkeyes a 1.5-point favorite.
LSU’s Offense Shows Up
The Tigers’ defense has been the name of their game throughout the tournament, but LSU’s offense pulled through in its win over Virginia Tech.
LSU’s defense still had a great game, limiting the Hokies to 40.4% shooting and 29% from three, but its offense had one of the best games of the Tigers’ tournament run, led by Alexis Morris and Angel Reese, who both surpassed 20 points.
The Tigers shot 47.1% in the win, with their offense coming alive in the fourth quarter to help the Tigers pull away. LSU shot 61.1% in the fourth to outscore Virginia Tech 29-13 in the final quarter.
LSU also had 24 second-chance points off of 15 offensive boards, led by Reese, who had six offensive rebounds and 12 boards total.
The Tigers will need another strong day offensively to keep up with the firepower that is the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Iowa’s Offense Prevails
South Carolina brought one of the nation’s top defenses to the Final Four to try to slow Iowa’s top offense. However, its effort was in vain.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark had yet another unstoppable performance in the semifinals to hand the Gamecocks their first loss while also scoring the most points in semifinal history.
Clark finished with 41 points, eight assists and six rebounds to become the first women’s player with back-to-back 40-point games in the NCAA Tournament.
Ms. 1️⃣,0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣@CaitlinClark22 is the 6th player, and 2nd Hawkeye, in DI WBB history to score 1,000 points in a single season. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/QZaXed9YAn
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) April 1, 2023
Though Clark scored the Hawkeyes’ final 13 points of the game, Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock were big for Iowa as well. Czinano scored 18 points despite battling foul trouble while Warnock grabbed the game-sealing offensive board for Iowa.
Clark will continue to be the engine that propels Iowa’s offense to success in the national championship.
LSU vs Iowa Head-to-Head
LSU and Iowa have met three times previously, with the last meeting taking place Nov. 25, 1990, in Iowa City and resulting in an overtime 73-65 Hawkeye victory.
LSU vs Iowa Game Information
- Game: LSU (33-2, 15-1 SEC) vs Iowa (31-6, 15-3 Big Ten)
- Location: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
- Day/Time: Sunday, April 2, 3:30 p.m. ET
- LSU vs Iowa Live Stream: TBS
LSU vs Iowa Betting Lines
LSU vs Iowa Picks and Prediction
The season all comes down to Sunday when LSU and Iowa will try to win their program’s first national title.
The matchup should be another game of offense against defense as Iowa’s first-place offense faces another top defense in LSU. Although the Tigers haven’t had the best offense in the tournament, it is third in the nation in average points and it showed up in their win over Virginia Tech. Iowa, meanwhile, was outrebounded 49-25 against South Carolina, but still found a way to win with its offense. No team has been able to find a way to stop Clark yet, and LSU should struggle to do so as well, leaving the Hawkeyes to win an exciting matchup, just as Women’s College Basketball picks predict.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are listed at -150 in our Vegas lines. This means that if you wager $100 on the Hawkeyes, you have a chance to win $67. The LSU Tigers are +110, offering a chance to win $110 on a $100 wager.
The implied probability attached to the betting lines gives the Iowa Hawkeyes a 60% chance to win, with the LSU Tigers at 47.62%.
