Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall said that she received so many “hate comments” on social media that she had to delete her accounts.
The comments came following a controversial offensive foul call that Marshall drew in the final seconds of Iowa’s 71-69 win in the Final Four.
With UConn trailing 70-69, Aaliyah Edwards was called for a moving screen as she screened Marshall while the Huskies were trying to get the ball to Paige Bueckers.
“I’ve gotten a lot of hate comments,” Marshall said Sunday before the national championship. “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.”
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder couldn’t believe Marshall was being attacked online for her role in the play.
“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.”
The call sparked a debate online about if and when the referees should make a call at that time in the game, when it has a direct impact on its outcome.
Marshall believes a call should be made if a foul occurs.
“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.”
Marshall shut Bueckers down, limiting the UConn star In the fourth quarter to just three points; she scored 17 in the game on 7-for-17 shooting.
On the final possession, she said she knew UConn would try and go to Bueckers so she tried to stay as close as she could.
Her defense ended up drawing the foul that sealed the game for the Hawkeyes.
