Whistle-Happy Officials Don’t Dilute LSU’s First-Half Dominance

The only thing distracting from the up-and-down pace of the first quarter of Sunday’s national championship game between LSU and Iowa was the sound of the referees’ whistles. By halftime, there was not stealing the spotlight from the white-hot Tigers.

The referees called 12 fouls in the first quarter and 21 in the first half, with several key players getting into early foul trouble. But LSU’s elite shot-making stole the show in Dallas, as the Tigers opened up a 59-42 halftime lead behind a perfect first 20 minutes from guard Jasmine Carson. 

Carson made all seven of her shot attempts—including five three-pointers—to lead all scorers with 21 points. She capped off her incredible performance by banking in a desperation three as time expired in the second quarter, capping a blistering first half for LSU.

The virtuoso performance by the Tigers took some of the pressure off of the officials, who took some incoming on social media for their quick whistles. Four different players had two fouls by the end of the first quarter, and eight had two by halftime—including Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who picked up her third foul late in the second and was forced to head to the bench. LSU’s Angel Reese also picked up two early fouls, and sat out for most of the second quarter.

That didn’t seem to bother the Tigers, who shot 58.3% from the field in the first half and made nine of their 12 three-point attempts. Iowa’s offense wasn’t too far off that pace, shooting 50% for the half and 6-for-11 on threes. But the Hawkeyes turned the ball over 11 times compared to LSU’s seven, which helped the Tigers attempts 10 more shots than Iowa in the first half.