Marshall from Iowa claims she got “hate comments” on social media following…..View
CLEVELAND (AP) – In response to her involvement in a highly-discussed foul call that occurred late in the Hawkeyes’ Final Four victory against UConn, Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall claimed on Saturday that she had gotten “hate comments” from individuals.
She claimed that in response, Marshall “kind of” erased her social networking applications off her phone.
With 3.9 seconds left and UConn down one, referees cited Huskies player Aaliyah Edwards for an illegal screen on Marshall. Iowa hung on for a 71-69 victory on Friday night and a berth in Sunday’s championship game against undefeated South Carolina, while the Huskies were unable to get the ball back.
Edwards tried to set up a screen so that Marshall could cover Paige Bueckers, the best player for UConn, so that Bueckers may have gotten a shot. When Marshall showed up, Edwards was not positioned as the rules required, and the 5-foot-9 Marshall managed to capture part of the 6-3 Edwards’ left elbow.
A whistle was raised by the slightest contact, and Marshall responded with great vigor, gesturing down the court as though to indicate that it was “our ball.”
Fans and bystanders were quite critical of the sequence.
Those who expressed their disagreement with the call on social media included LeBron James and Kesley Plum. Marshall feels that the focus around the call has eclipsed Iowa’s victory and her play in containing Bueckers, who scored 17 points on 7 of 17 shots.
“I feel like it just kind of overlooked the fact that I played my butt off the whole game trying to guard her,” Marshall stated. “During the whole game, I’ve attempted to ignore the displays. That one play seemed to have taken over everything, in my opinion.”
Since she didn’t blow the whistle, Marshall noted, she’s “not sure why they’re mad at me personally.”
Coach Lisa Bluder of Iowa reprimanded individuals who made fun of Marshall.
“I can´t believe people would be so immature as to attack a 22-year-old on doing their job and doing it really, really well,” Bluder stated.
