ALL THAT JAS 

DALLAS — LSU guard Jasmine Carson holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration.

If someone didn’t know any better, they would have sensed that she was a History major.

“For me, just history. We’re going in the history books,” said Carson, when asked what it means to be apart of coach Kim Mulkey’s program. “You know, it just means a lot and I’m excited. I know Baton Rouge is lit right now.”

Arguably the biggest reason Baton Rouge, in all likelihood, figures to host its own version of Mardi Gras in the coming days is due in large part to Carson’s unlikely heroics on college basketball’s grandest stage.

The No. 3 seed Tigers captured their first national championship in school history by thoroughly dispatching No. 2 Iowa, 102-85, on Sunday to cap off a scintillating Final Four weekend in North Texas.

A record NCAA championship crowd of 19,482 that included First Lady Jill Biden in the American Airlines Center witnessed Carson assume the role as unsung hero.

Having played the first four years of her eligibility at Georgia Tech and West Virginia, the graduate transfer scored 21 of her team-best 22 points in the first half on 7-of-8 shooting and LSU relied on a potent balanced attack that featured four starters scoring in double figures as the Tigers brought Mulkey a national crown in just her second season with the school.

After checking in the game for the first time with inside of two minutes remaining in the first quarter, Carson wasted little time playing the “game of my life” when she drained her first 3-point basket with 32 seconds left.

Fortunately for the Tigers (34-2), Carson subsequently developed a rhythm despite playing sparingly in the Big Dance. She connected on each of her four attempts from beyond the arc in the ensuing quarter, an incredible, unlikely display that allowed LSU’s lead to expand to 17 at the half, 59-42 — this after it managed just 54 points in its Elite Eight win over Miami.

“I’m so happy for Jas,” LSU starting point guard Alexis Morris said. “In (shootaround) today, I asked her, ‘Do you want to get some extra shots up?’ She was like, ‘Nah, I’m good.’ So, I was like, ‘So you’re ready four tonight?’ So when she hit her first few shots and Iowa called timeout, I told her, ‘Stay right there. Stay locked in. Whatever head space you’re in right now, don’t check out and stay ready.’”

GIRL, BYE

Carson was more than prepared Sunday against an Iowa team that got a game-high 30 points on 9-of-22 field goals from Caitlin Clark, the Associated Press Player of the Year whose record-setting performance was overshadowed by an LSU team that manufactured a masterful effort in a game in which the Hawkeyes and Tigers were making national championship appearance debuts.

Clark became the NCAA Tournament’s all-time leader in three-point field goals when her first basketball at the 8:24 mark of opening quarter had extended the Hawkeyes’ lead to 7-3 against LSU.

But on this day, it was Carson’s improbable performance that ultimately gave way to the Tigers producing a massive second quarter run to regain control the rest of the way.

After two Angel Reese free throws had given the Tigers’ their biggest lead at 63-42 with 8:09 left in the third, the Hawkeyes responded with a 12-0 spurt to trim their deficit to single digits near the quarter’s midday point.

Iowa (31-7), in fact, twice drew to within seven over the final three minutes of the third. But to no avail, the Hawkeyes had virtually no answers for a feisty and more physical LSU team that broke the century mark in scoring for the first time since the Tigers accomplished that feat the first five games of the season.

BASKING IN THE GLORY

For the 60-year-old Mulkey, who took over at LSU after 21 seasons with Baylor, Sunday’s win was her fourth national championship (she coached Baylor to national titles in 2005, 2012, and 2019).

Mulkey is the only coach in NCAA Tournament history to seize national titles at two different schools and the third to win at least four national championships, joining Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma (11) and Tennessee’s Pat Summitt (eight).

Sporting a flashy blush pink and gold blazer for Sunday’s title game, Mulkey praised Carson for a historic performance that unfolded during the game’s crucial moment — with Reese sitting the entire second quarter on the bench with two fouls.

“Jasmine may be the second-best pure shooter that I’ve ever coached in my career,” Mulkey said. “She can just light it up. When we got in foul trouble and we had three starters sitting over there early in the first half, or the first and second quarter, I thought just keep it close until I can get them back on the floor. That’s what’s going through your mind.

“When those guys got in there and they extended the lead and scored with Iowa, I thought this is going to be a fun night. They didn’t just keep it close. They went in and they attacked.”

Iowa was officially done in when Monika Czinano picked up her fourth foul with 1:04 remaining in the third, causing a seemingly frustrated Clark to toss the ball out of bounds and being whistled for a technical foul as a result.

Despite outscoring LSU, 22-16, in the third, the Hawkeyes got no closer than 10 over the game’s final 10 minutes.

For good measure, a 3-point basket by Morris with 24 seconds remaining allowed LSU to eclipse the century mark, thus setting off a wild celebration on the Tigers’ bench, a coronation Carson started in the first place.

JOINING ELITE COMPANY 

“I can’t wait to get (to Baton Rouge),” Carson, a native Memphian who was named to the Final Four All-Tournament Team, told reporters with a smile. “We’re going to have a parade. We’re in the history books. It was a surreal moment. Every player dream of being on the big stage and playing the game of your life.

“Coming to fruition, it really meant a lot. I was just taking in the moment, living in the moment. I didn’t have nothing to lose. This was my last game of my college career and I ended it the right way.”

In the history books.

For the record.

Andre Johnson is the award-winning Founder and Publisher for Making Headline News. A 2000 graduate of the University of Memphis School of Journalism and a former staff reporter of sports for the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper, Johnson covers the NBA Southwest Division from Dallas, Texas. To reach Johnson, send email to makingheadlinenews@gmail.com or to memphisgraduate@yahoo.com. Also, follow him on Twitter @AJ_Journalist or Instagram at @makingheadlinenews.

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