Cleveland — It was a whistle which obliterated the suspense, effectively ending a matchup between two of the game’s giants (both individually and collectively).

The game, between UConn and Iowa, Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark, was everything it was expected to be, taking place before 18,284 fans at sold-out Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse with a berth in the national championship game.

Everything it was expected to be. Until it wasn’t.

Iowa, the second-ranked team in the country, defeated No. 10 UConn 71-69 Friday, sending the Hawkeyes back to the national championship game for the second straight season.

UConn, the underdog after losing six players to injury, trailed by one point with 9.3 seconds remaining when freshman KK Arnold stole the ball to give the Huskies an opportunity to win the game or lose it based on one last shot.

An offensive foul call on UConn senior Aaliyah Edwards, whistled for a moving screen, halted the play with 3.9 seconds left, just as Bueckers was receiving the ball.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma summed up the loss in his opening statement, sitting alongside tearful seniors Bueckers, Edwards and Nika Muhl.

“After we beat USC (in the regional final Monday in Portland, Oregon), one of the things that was said in the locker room was, ‘You know, people always ask you how you feel about winning a game like this. And sometimes you just can’t put into words how you feel. You just have to feel it.

“The same thing applies to when you lose at this part of the season. It’s hard to explain how you feel when the season ends so suddenly. We put ourselves in a position to win a game that we probably had no business even being in, given the circumstances that we worked with.

“... But in the moment, when you’re trying to win the game and you don’t win the game, you don’t think you were lucky to be here, you just think about we had an opportunity to win this game and we didn’t.”

Iowa sophomore Hannah Stuelke finished with a game-high 23 points and Clark, the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, had 21 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Hawkeyes (34-4) advanced to meet South Carolina in the championship game at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Bueckers and Edwards had 17 points each for UConn (33-6), Arnold had 14 points, five assists and five steals and Muhl had nine points, five rebounds, seven assists and three steals, while also defending Clark.

UConn led by as many as 12 with 5 minutes, 18 seconds remaining in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Bueckers which gave the Huskies a 28-16 advantage and Clark ended the first half with just six points on 3-for-11 shooting (by contrast, she had 41 in the Hawkeyes’ previous game).

But Clark drew Iowa within 44-43 on a four-point play in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes then tied the game and took the lead getting six straight points from Stuelke. UConn’s Edwards hit a jump shot to end the third quarter with the game tied at 51-all.

But Stuelke struck again to start the fourth quarter and Clark hit a 3-pointer to ignite the pro-Iowa crowd, as the Hawkeyes took the lead for good.

UConn trailed 70-64 before Edwards scored to carve the deficit to four and Muhl hit a 3 with 38.3 seconds to go to make it 70-69. Arnold’s steal set up the potential game-winning play for the Huskies that went awry with the offensive foul.

Edwards said she believed the play was clean.

Bueckers said she regretted not doing everything she could to decide the game before it came down to a final play.

“You can look at one play and say, ‘Oh, that killed us’ or ‘that hurt us.’ But we should have done a better job of making sure we didn’t leave the game up to chance like that. Maybe that was a tough call for us but I feel like I could have done a better job preventing that from even happening.”

UConn was playing in its unprecedented 23rd Final Four, looking for its 12th national championship and its first since winning four straight from 2013-16.

Edwards, named a Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Association All-American on Thursday along with Bueckers, will graduate from the program along with Muhl, the Huskies’ all-time assist leader.

Bueckers, sidelined by injuries for a portion of her career, has announced that she’ll return.

“I’m pissed right now. It really hurts,” Muhl said. “But I know that I’ll look back onto this and I’ll feel nothing but being thankful and grateful and blessed for what I’ve built here, what kind of experiences I’ve had here because this is family for life.

“They love me when I was at my worst, when I was at my best and it stays forever.”

Clark will take 3,921 career points into the final game of her storied career against South Carolina.

“I don’t think it was like a freaking out about offense not working,” Clark said about the deficit at halftime. “I think it was just an ‘it will come around.’ ... Nobody panicked. Everybody knew we just needed to clean it up a little bit and that's exactly what we did.

“... Honestly, like, UConn is a really good defensive team, one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen all year. I think Nika did a tremendous job guarding me.”

Said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder: “Going against Geno, he’s one of the best minds in our game. He is unbelievable. I mean, the success that he’s had. He’s been dealt a really tough hand this year with all the injuries. For him to be in this game with all the injuries that he had to some of his star players is unbelievable.

“We really kept believing and I’m just so proud of the character of these young women to maintain their composure through some pretty tough times in the first half.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com