Watch: Paige Bueckers Responds to Controversial Call in Game Against Caitlin Clark, Iowa – ‘A Lot of Mistakes’

UConn star guard Paige Bueckers could have sounded off about the officiating after an offensive foul called against UConn with seconds to play was instrumental in UConn’s 71-69 loss to Iowa in Friday night’s Final Four game.

But even as debate raged over whether the call was good or bad, Bueckers said she believed she fell short of her standards, according to a post on X.

“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,” she said. “I feel like there were a lot of mistakes that I made that could’ve prevented that play from even being that big or causing the game …”

“You can look at one play and say, ‘That killed us’ or ‘That hurt us,’ but should have done a better job, I should have done a better job, of making sure we didn’t leave the game up to chance like that and leave the game up to one bad call going our way and that deciding it, so, yeah, maybe that’s a tough call for us, but I feel like I coulda done a better job of preventing that from even happening,” she said.

Bueckers noted that UConn might not be champions, but the players were still winners