As an avalanche of hate rolls toward her for the sin of being on the winning end of a disputed call at the close of the Iowa-UConn women’s basketball game Friday night, Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall is just tuning it all out.
With Iowa ahead 70-69, UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards was called for an offensive foul after trying to block Marshall. The officials ruled Edwards violated the rule that she had to remain still while setting a screen. That killed UConn’s hopes for a go-ahead basket as Iowa went on to win 71-69.
The call has been controversial. LeBron James is among the horde of irate viewers who posted on X that the call was wrong. Others have said the referee should have let play go on as time ticked down. Others have said replays show the call was on target.
pic.twitter.com/W0suNYnSvw It. Was. A. Foul.
— Coach Williams ⛳️🏌️🏀🎸🏈🦓🇺🇸🇭🇷 (@mwilliams2469) April 6, 2024
Marshall, who not only fought past Edwards but gave a winning performance of illustrating the impact of Edwards’s elbow, said the haters are taking out their anger on her.
"I've deleted social media," Marshall said, according to Bleacher Report.
“I’ve gotten a lot of hate comments,” Marshall said Sunday, according to the New York Post.
“I don’t know. I’m not the one that made the call. So I’m not sure why they’re mad at me personally” she said.
Marshall said the fixation on the foul call “just kind of overlooked the fact that I played my butt off the whole game trying to guard her, trying to get over screens the whole game and feel like that one play just consumed everything. That's all anyone's talking about. They're not talking about the fact that it was a great game between two great teams,” according to Bleacher Report. Marshall was assigned to guard UConn star Paige Bueckers.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder scolded the haters.
I hate this. #Hawkeyes senior Gabbie Marshall has gotten angry messages directed at her about the screen call last night so she has decided to delete social media.
"That one play consumed everything."
Video by @SEhrhardtKCCI @KCCINews pic.twitter.com/ZCRwuNpOfq
— Scott Reister (@scottreister) April 6, 2024
“It’s unbelievable to me that you’re going to criticize a 22-year-old kid for something that she had no control over,” Bluder said.
“I thought we handled that really well. We switched out onto it. I thought we were there to contest. I can’t believe people would be so immature as to attack a 22-year-old on doing their job and doing really, really well,” she said.
Despite comments from some that the final seconds of a game is no time to call a foul, Marshall said the rules are the rules..
“When the right call’s the right call, it’s not fair to say you can’t make that call with 10 seconds left when you can make it with 10 minutes, or two minutes left,” Marshall said.
“If it’s the right call, it’s the right call. It’s out of my control to make the calls, but personally I thought it was an illegal screen and it’s not like it was the first one of the game,” she said.
On Friday after the victory, she said she expected UConn would get the ball to Bueckers and was determined not to let that happen.
“I think we knew going in that we needed to get a stop and obviously, at least I thought the ball was going to go to Paige and I’m pretty sure that was the game plan. I figured they were going to try to set a couple of screens and I was staying on her hip the whole game,” Marshall said Friday night after the game, according to the New York Post.
“And if I’m on her hip, the person can’t move into you and they have to give you room to go around it if you’re sticking with them and on their hip,” she said.
“And so I hit it, I knew it was a moving screen. So, I’m happy it was called and it was just a huge moment,” she said.
