CSS + Converge at WBB March Madness: recapping Elite eight
Sights and scenes from Louisville vs Iowa (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Elite matchup of Caitlin Clark and Haley Van Lith
Seattle was spoiled with a fantastic first Elite Eight game; a matchup between two skilled athletes, Hailey Van Lith and Caitlin. Both talented women helped lead their team as far as they would go. Van Lith, a Cashmere, WA native would start the scoring early with the first six points for the Cardinals. They got off to a quick start, but Caitlin Clark got warm and hit the first 7 points for the Hawkeyes. Both teams would end the half shooting over 50% from the field, Van Lith and Clark each leading their teams in scoring. However, the tempo and spreading the floor was all Catilin Clark. She was 5-9 from beyond the arc and was controlling the speed of the game. It became a sort of shoot-out causing Van Lith to take rushed shots. The Cardinals couldn’t slow it down on offense long enough to run a play.
Sights from the battle between Hailey Van Lith and Caitlin Clark (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Louisville didn’t catch themselves trailing by much going into the half down 48-43. Clark and Van Lith didn’t have much time guarding each other, but the defensive scheme for the Hawkeyes in the second half helped contain Van Lith and the Cardinals. Marshall took the defensive assignment on Van Lith, the Hawkeyes as a team kept them to only 27% from the field in the 3rd quarter. Great defense gave opportunity for great offense and Iowa found themselves leading by double digits with a 30 point 3rd quarter. Despite Van Lith playing all 40 minutes and Cochran’s late fourth quarter push for Louisville, they would not be able to recover from the deficit. Caitlin Clark had a historic night tallying 41 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists, the first player in NCAA to record a 40-point triple double in the history of the NCAA tournament to help advance her team.
Scenes from Virginia Tech’s win over Ohio State (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Play “Enter Sandman”
Our second Elite Eight match up looked good on paper, an even match up in every position. It would have been easy to assume that McMahon was going to continue her dominance from their Sweet Sixteen win into this game. The same could have been expected for Virginia Tech’s Georgia Amoore. However, they both started the game quiet on offense allowing for their teams to get involved. This was partially due to the fact that Amoore got in a pretty bad spill and had to be carried to the locker room for further examination.
Scenes of Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley’s game in the win (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)
Aside from the first quarter, the Hokies had the most time with a lead, they were outscored in the first quarter, but came back to lead for the remainder of the game. While the team waited for Amoore to warm up after coming back from the injury scare, Kitley would dominate in the paint all 40 minutes that she was on the floor. She was aggressive on offense and defense in her center position ending the game with the last 7 points and a 25-point, 12 rebound double-double. The Buckeyes had no way of stopping her. Hokies got some help from two other players in double digits, King and Soule for a team contribution of four players in double figures in
Scenes from Iowa’s and Virginia Tech’s celebrations (Photos by Mathew Bermudez)