DALLAS — Kim Mulkey attempted the mic-drop moment earlier in the week, but it was Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder who completed the task. The last question of the morning media availability on Saturday asked Bluder how she would stop Caitlin Clark if she were on an opposite sideline.

“Pray,” Bluder said, eliciting laughs as she left the interview room to prepare for the program’s first national championship game. Iowa will take on Mulkey’s LSU program, also making its first appearance, at 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday on ABC.

It’s another battle of stars between Clark and LSU forward Angel Reese. While both have shown out in their respective tournament runs, Clark’s legend continues to improbably move up levels every outing. And the top question everyone wants to know: How do you stop a talent with skill sets so strong in every way she seems unguardable?

The 6-foot junior point guard matched her 41-point Elite Eight outing with another 41-point day against South Carolina, the second-highest in Final Four history behind Sheryl Swoopes’ 47 in 1993. Clark’s total was more than nine teams collectively scored against the Gamecocks’ No. 2 defense all season. And 10 fewer than the team’s average allowed (51.8 ppg).

While her stepback 3s and shots from the logo were jaw-dropping, her ability to pass through South Carolina’s length was eye-popping. She had eight assists and kept Iowa’s No. 1 offense on the attack so much that South Carolina looked rattled in a way the team that had come into Friday losing three games over two seasons hadn’t shown prior.

“Caitlin, she’s so good at the pass, the drive, the shot, the finish, the length,” assistant coach Jan Jensen said in the locker room after the Final Four win. “I mean, I think that’s why it’s tough. Because you want to double her, but do you really want to double her at three-quarters court, you know? On the other side? Because she’s going to throw it to someone that is capable.”

Early in the season, Clark said she didn’t care about scoring 40, because it often came without a win. In December, she reached 45 against NC State, but Iowa lost by 13. Now, she’s dropping 40 with some of the biggest wins of her life.

Bluder said the 28-point loss to Maryland on Feb. 21 made it apparent to Clark that she really needed to find ways to involve her teammates and keep trust in them. It’s been a continued evolvement since high school, when Bluder said teammates weren’t anticipating her passes, or ready for them, or able to handle them and shoot.

“She’s always known it this year, but I think that was an example of, ‘Wow, I’ve got to really pour into my teammates because they’re going to carry us if we want to go far,’” said Bluder, who thanked Maryland head coach Brenda Frese on Friday night for preparing the Hawkeyes.

Iowa hasn’t lost since and has shot some of its best 3-point percentages of the season. Her teammates stepping up around her and pick-and-roll mate Monika Czinano has been season-changing and it goes beyond scoring points. Kate Martin’s early rebounds set a tone against South Carolina, the rebounding queens. McKenna Warnock reeled in the biggest one of all off a missed Clark 3-pointer with 18 seconds left in a 2-point game.

“She’s going to get her points,” Mulkey said to the first question of her own morning media session. “That girl is phenomenal shooting the ball. But the most impressive thing to me, now that you’re talking to an old point guard, is she makes everybody around her better. You have great players that can get numbers, but she makes others on her team better.”

Czinano, a 6-foot-3 fifth-year senior center, was not recruited heavily out of high school. The Iowa coaching staff saw someone who would embrace contact and it worked with her on a shot that was “messed up” when she came in as a freshman, Bluder said. Clark came along and immediately in Czinano’s junior and true senior seasons, she led the nation in efficiency.

“Caitlin really does elevate every single person she plays with, and I think she does that by kind of pushing them out of their comfort zone,” Czinano said. “I remember when I got here, I had been here awhile and she was pushing me in ways I didn’t think I could be pushed. Definitely throwing passes in places only I can get it, and it’s almost a struggle for me to get it. But then she knows that no one else would be able to.”

Czinano said Clark’s fire is a motivator for teammates to bring the same type of passion. Warnock said Clark elevates her team “from day one” in ways that go beyond passes.

“Outside of basketball, she gives you all the confidence,” Warnock said. “She’s always the first one to pick you up when you’re missing shots. I was 0-for-3 yesterday at first. She told me to knock down the next one, and I did. She’s just able to give so much energy, so much confidence. It’s so amazing to play with someone like that.”

Warnock hit two of her next three shots, including a 3, to close with five points, three assists and three rebounds. Jensen said in the locker room after the win Clark is “wired differently” and the coaching staff lets her take more shots than they might normally allow in their offensive system. They can do it because of players like Warnock, Martin and Gabbie Marshall.

“What is helpful is that our role players — people say they’re role players — they just are ready when they get their shot,” Jensen said. “McKenna is not a role player. Gabbie is not a role player. In our opinions.”

Jensen said she “respects the heck out of Kim Mulkey” and the three-time national championship coach will surely have some tricks to roll out. Some people sell out on Clark. Others let her have 40 and try to close everyone else down, a feat that is becoming harder every game. Still more usually “beat the heck out of her,” Jensen said, though Clark keeps pushing. Most leave with shrugs, because what can you do?

Mulkey’s first experience watching Clark live was Friday night in the second half after the LSU leader was done celebrating with her team and family, and finished media responsibilities. She said she couldn’t take her eyes off the star taking college basketball by storm.

“I’ve never seen a player — I don’t like to use the word ‘never,’ but I don't know that I’ve ever seen a player that can do what Caitlin does,” Mulkey said.

Mulkey said a rematch with South Carolina would have been easier since there was a familiarity there. Instead, LSU is the SEC’s representative in the championship game. And the Tigers are the next team tasked with attempting to stop the plays eliciting all of the “Are you serious, Clark?” posters and T-shirts in Dallas.

“The things she’s capable of doing — one minute you think you’re going to guard her a certain way, then you watch the film and change your mind and go, ‘Oh, that’s not going to work,’” Mulkey said. “Hopefully, by the end of the day, we’ll come to some conclusion as a staff that we’re going to try this first, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll try this.”

At the top of the list might be to send up a prayer.