UConn on late foul call: Not the reason we lost to Iowa in Final Four - ESPN

CLEVELAND — UConn coach Geno Auriemma said illegal screens could be called «on every single possession,» but stopped short of directly criticizing officials for a controversial offensive foul call that helped decide Iowa's 71-69 victory in Friday's women's Final Four.

«I just know there were three or four of them called on us, and I don't think there were any called on them,» Auriemma said. «So I guess we just gotta get better on not setting illegal screens.»

The Huskies had possession trailing 70-69 in the waning seconds of a thrilling back-and-forth showdown. But UConn's Aaliyah Edwards was called for the offensive foul with 3.9 seconds remaining as she screened Iowa's Gabbie Marshall in an attempt to get star guard Paige Bueckers open for a game-winning shot.

«My point of view, it was pretty clean,» Edwards said of the screen.

UConn never got the ball back, as the Hawkeyes rebounded Caitlin Clark's missed free throw on her second attempt and ran out the clock. Iowa will play in the national championship game for the second straight year on Sunday against South Carolina, which took care of North Carolina State 78-59 earlier Friday to move to 37-0 on the season.

Bueckers called the illegal screen «a tough call» but didn't blame it for UConn's loss.

«Everybody can make a big deal of that one single play, but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game,» said Bueckers, who tied Edwards with a team-high 17 points. «You can look at one play and say, 'Oh, that killed us or that hurt us.' But we should have done a better job — I should have done a better job of making sure we didn't leave the game up to chance like that and leave the game up to one bad call [not] going our way and that deciding it.»