Reese, LSU women push past Miami 54-42 to reach Final Four

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Angel Reese had 18 rebounds and LSU returned to the women’s Final Four for the first time in 15 years by beating Miami 54-42 on Sunday night, carrying a rapid rise under second-year coach Kim Mulkey straight to the sport’s biggest stage.

Alexis Morris scored 21 points and Reese added 13 for the third-seeded Tigers (32-2), who asserted control of a grinding, defense-first game. LSU’s length caused Miami problems even with Reese — an Associated Press first-team All-American — having a brutal shooting day, and the Tigers offset their offensive hiccups by dominating the glass.

LSU shot 30.2% and went 1 for 12 from 3-point range, including misses on its first nine attempts. But Miami was even worse from 3, missing all 15 tries.

The third-seeded Tigers finished with a 49-35 rebounding edge behind Reese, which led to a 15-3 edge in second-chance points — all desperately needed on a day with offensive rebounds readily available.

Mulkey is in her second season at LSU, bringing a resume with three NCAA titles from her time at Baylor along with some flamboyant sideline looks such as her shimmering silver jacket with white pants for this one. She had cautioned that the Tigers were overachieving when they’re still strengthening a program for the long haul.

Maybe so, but they’re ahead of schedule after pushing their way through the NCAA Tournament’s Greenville 2 Region and now the Tigers head to Dallas for Friday’s national semifinals.

When the horn sounded, Mulkey turned to her bench and leaned forward to put her hands on her knees as though in disbelief. Players soon began running to midcourt to celebrate — except for Morris running straight to the scorer’s table and jumping on top of it.

Reese missed her first nine shots and didn’t manage her first basket until early in the third quarter, finishing the day 3 for 15 from the field. But she went 7 of 10 from the free-throw line and contributed four assists, three steals and two blocks.

Jasmyne Roberts scored 22 points for ninth-seeded Miami (22-13), which had taken a wild ride here. The Hurricanes rallied from a huge deficit to beat Oklahoma State in the first round, stunned No. 1 seed Indiana on the road, then beat Villanova in Friday’s Sweet 16 despite blowing a 21-point lead.

The last win set off an emotional on-court celebration for Katie Meier’s bunch, which had played with toughness and athleticism to get to its first Elite Eight. The Hurricanes were trying to match the record for lowest-seeded team ever to reach a Final Four, set by Arkansas in 1998.

IOWA 97, LOUISVILLE 83: Caitlin Clark put on a show with 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to help second-seeded Iowa (30-6) beat No. 5 seed Louisville (26-12) and reach its first Final Four in 30 years.

The unanimous first-team All-American was as dominant as she’s been all season in getting the Hawkeyes to Dallas for the women’s NCAA Tournament national semifinals on Friday night where they will face South Carolina or Maryland.

Iowa hadn’t been to the Final Four since Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer led the team to its lone appearance in 1993. Before Sunday, the team had only been to one other Elite Eight — in 2019 — since the Final Four team.

Clark had the 11th triple-double of her career and the 19th in NCAA Tournament history. She had the first 30- and 40-point triple-double in March Madness history.

Trailing by five at the half, Louisville cut its deficit to 48-47 before Clark and the Hawkeyes scored the next 11 points as part of a 17-6 run to blow the game open. That brought most of the pro-Iowa crowd of nearly 12,000 fans to their feet.

Hailey Van Lith scored 27 points, and Olivia Cochran had 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead Louisville.