ALBANY, N.Y. — Caitlin Clark can swear all she wants that she hasn't been imagining this rematch with LSU , stewing about how close she'd come to a national championship and plotting her revenge on those who kept it from her.
Her game said otherwise.
Clark was at her stone-cold baller finest Monday night, drilling one logo 3 after another, making sick pass after slick pass to her teammates and refusing to let LSU end her title hopes again. That competitiveness everyone talks about and her hatred of losing? LSU felt its singe Monday night.
"We focus on Iowa. We do what Iowa does, and we'll come out on top," Clark said afterward. "It's not about last year. You worry too much about the past, you're going to get caught up in that. It's about being present, being where your feet are."
On this night, those feet were firmly planted in LSU's way. College basketball's all-time leading scorer had a hand in just about everything Iowa did in the 94-87 win that wasn't nearly as close as the score indicated.
She scored or assisted on all but seven of Iowa's 32 field goals, finishing with 41 points and 12 assists and coming within three rebounds of a triple-double. Her body check of Angel Reese under the basket in the second quarter sent her nemesis from last year's title game stumbling off the court and into a camera man . Reese rolled her ankle, the same one she injured in the SEC tournament, and despite returning to the game shortly after, she — and LSU — were never the same.
"She's just a generational player, and she just makes everybody around her better. That's what the great onesdo," LSU coach Kim Mulkey said of Clark.
The two had a moment in the handshake line, where the Hall of Fame coach paid Clark the ultimate compliment.
"What did I say to her? I said, 'I sure am glad you're leaving,' " Mulkey said. "I said, `Girl, you something else. Never seen anything like it.' "
Iowa will play UConn in the Final Four on Friday night. That will be another repeat, this time from Clark's freshman year. The Sweet 16 game was billed as the battle of the freshman phenoms, Clark and Paige Bueckers, and UConn won handily, 92-72.
"We were a young team. We had no experience," Clark said.
They do now. And those experiences, the disappointments in particular, have hardened Clark and Iowa. None more than coming up short in last year's title game.
Clark had 30 points in that loss to LSU. But she and the Hawkeyes were outplayed and outsmarted by Reese. Outshined, too, with Reese going viral by showing Clark her ring finger at the game's end.
It was all in the spirit of competition, and it was great for the game. It drove interest in women's basketball to stratospheric heights, and made Monday's rematch must-see TV. Sequels are rarely as good as the original, and games this hyped rarely live up to their expectations. This one did and then some.
Thanks to Clark.
Flau'jae Johnson was spectacular, finishing with 23 points and almost single-handedly keeping LSU in the game in the second half. Reese had 20 rebounds and 17 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. LSU hammered Iowa on the glass (54-36) and in the paint (44-36).
But the Tigers could have had every player in double figures and it still wouldn't have mattered. That's how determined Clark was.
She practically crackled with intensity, her eyes staring holes through the LSU players. Remember last year, when she waved off Raven Johnson in the win over then-unbeaten South Carolina in the Final Four? There was one sequence in the third quarter that was even more savage.
With LSU already reeling, Clark stepped in front of Flau'jae Johnson's pass and stole it. She raced down the court and appeared as if she was going to pull up for another one of those logo 3s. Instead, she threaded the ball past Reese to Sydney Affolter, who laid the ball up and over Reese to put the Hawkeyes ahead 63-52 with 4:03 left in the quarter.
The rest of the Hawkeyes fed off Clark, their supernova. Kate Martin had 21 points and six rebounds, and helped run the hobbled Reese ragged with her fast breaks. Affolter kept up her super-sub performances, scoring 16 on 5-of-10 shooting. Gabbie Marshall made only one field goal, a 3-pointer, but she played what's become her trademark lockdown defense.
Johnson tried to will her team back into the game, and LSU got within single digits early in the fourth quarter. It might have rattled other teams, but Clark said the Hawkeyes knew those runs were coming.
Don't celebrate, they told themselves. Don't get caught up in the emotions because LSU will take advantage of it.
"I feel like that's what I'm the most proud of over the course of these last two games, just being calm, cool, collectedand dialed in to what we need to do," Clark said. "I'm not worried about what the other team is doing. I'm not worried about what call the ref is making. I'm worried about Iowa needs."
And she always delivered. When Clark made a 3-pointer from the concourse with 5:05 to play, putting Iowa up by 11 and effectively sealing the win, she turned to the Iowa fans and let out an almost primal scream. For just a few seconds, she let her guard down, unleashing a year's worth of rage and want.
Reese and LSU had bested her once. She wasn't about to let them do it again.
"Yes, we want to win the national title. That's probably what 100 other Division I basketball teams said when theystarted their season," Clark said. "A lot of people end disappointed. And being so close last year, I think that's what just drives you.
"That's the reason we've been able to play such good basketball," she added. "We don't want this to end."
Clark and Iowa are still playing. She made sure of that.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Caitlin Clark simmered for a year. Then she took out her rage on LSU
