"I'm not the one that made the call": Iowa's Gabbie Marshall discloses influx of backlash following controversial Aaliyah Edwards foul vs. UConn

The ending to the Iowa Hawkeyes versus UConn Huskies Final Four matchup on Friday drew a ton of controversy thanks to an offensive foul call against Aaliyah Edwards in the waning moments of the game.

As fans and media members alike took to social media to dispute the call, the situation turned ugly for Gabbie Marshall. Edwards was called for an illegal screen against Marshall with 3.9 seconds left in the game, who had marked Paige Bueckers all game long.

During a media session, Marshall disclosed how the foul call has now led to people being 'hateful,' and she doesn't agree with this. Speaking in the media availability session ahead of the championship game, she said (as per Scott Reiter):

"I’ve gotten a lot of hate comments. 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 went on further to explain her thoughts on the call and the dispute that arose from it. She claimed that she did feel the foul call was legitimate and the screen set by Aaliyah Edwards was, indeed, an illegal screen.

"It happened, personally I thought it was an illegal screen, it's not like it was the first one of the game."

For most of the game, Gabbie Marshall had done an excellent job on Paige. Limiting her to just 17 points, she was able to take away the efficiency (51% from the field, 41% from 3) that makes Bueckers so effective.

"I’ve kind of deleted social media, I feel like it 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.”

In a defensive-minded "great game" as Gabbie called it, defense was the focus for both squads. Like Paige Bueckers, the best player for the Iowa Hawkeyes, Caitlin Clark, faced similar issues thanks to the defensive effort by Nika Muhl.

She finished the game with 21 points, a far cry from the 31 points she has averaged throughout the tournament, with sub-par 7-18 shooting from the field to go along with 3-11 from 3-point range.

Paige Bueckers agrees with referee's call for Gabbie Marshall

One person who did not agree with the online chatter about the controversial foul call was National Player of the Year Finalist and arguably the best player on the UConn Huskies squad, Paige Bueckers. Speaking to the media after the game, she said:

"Everybody can make a big deal of that one single play, but not one single play wins a basketball game or loses a basketball game. I feel like there were a lot of mistakes that I made that could have prevented that play from even being that big."

On the other hand, UConn's head coach, Geno Auriemma was not as forgiving of that call in the post-game interview. Instead, he called out the double standard between the calls made for and against the Huskies throughout the game.

"There's probably an illegal screen call that you could make on every single possession. I just know that there were 3 or four of them called on us and I don't think there was any called on them."