In a match between two undefeated players The Big Ten Teams with identical 13-game winning streaks, No. 13 Indiana He went out as they were defeated on Saturday night. IU fell to No. 3 Iowa by a score of 84-57 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
IU is now 14-2 (5-1 Big Ten), while Iowa State improved to 17-1 (6-0 Big Ten).
“I wish we had played much better than we did tonight,” said International Federation coach Thierry Morin. “Every ounce of credit goes to Iowa State, they've been great.”
Here are three notes from the game:
Caitlin Clark Show
IU coach Terry Morin acknowledged Friday that the Hoosiers, like most teams across the country, haven't figured out a solid way to successfully guard Iowa State star Kaitlin Clark. IU's hope was, at the very least, to be limited to less than its average of 30 points per game.
In the first quarter, the Hoosiers had success. Clark went 0-for-6 from 3-point range in the first 10 minutes and had eight points from getting to the rim. Clark then made her first 3-pointer at the 7-minute mark of the second. As the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd cheered, Clark made a second straight shot beyond the arc, and the floodgates opened.
Indiana in Kaitlyn Clarke's future?“I know how much people support women's basketball here.”
IU goalie Lexus Bargesser forced an offensive foul on Clark five minutes before halftime, sending her to the bench for a while. But the Iowa State senior checked in again with two minutes left in the first half, burying two more 3s to bring her total to 20 points for the half.
As the second half wore on, it seemed like nothing could stop Clarke. She apparently suffered the injury twice — one when she landed on her elbow, and the other when she hurt her ankle and ran into the locker room — but she came back just as quickly as she came out.
She got Carver-Hawkeye on her feet several times with 3s and reached 30 points (for the 46th time in her career) by the end of the third quarter. She had a double-double in the third quarter with 10 assists.
Although Clark didn't pick up any more points in the fourth quarter, she didn't need to — Iowa already had a 15-point lead, and her teammates kept scoring for her. Clark left the game after picking up her fourth foul at the 3-minute mark, earning loud cheers from the crowd.
IU also stressed that while she can't stop Clark, she can try to limit everyone. But Iowa senior guard Molly Davis tore through IU's defense in the first half, matching her season high of 13 points in the first half and finishing with 18 points.
“We certainly didn't do what we needed to do, neither with Kate nor with the rest of these people,” Morin said. “Molly Davis gets 18 points, just things like that. You know Kate's probably going to get her average, but you don't want to let these other people have big nights. Unfortunately, we let a lot of them take what they want from us.”
Subject to circulation
IU is not a high turnover team. Entering the game against Iowa, IU was averaging just 13 turnovers per game.
By halftime against the Hawkeyes, the Hoosiers already had nine.
“Against a good team like Iowa, you can't afford to have too many turnovers, especially that many,” senior Chloe Moore-McNeil said. “They will make you pay, any good team will make you pay for a lot of turnovers.”
Sophomore guard Jarden Garzon, who struggled against Iowa's defense in the paint in the first half, had five of those turnovers in the first half. She drove into the paint three times, then picked up an offensive foul on Molly Davis — which was reviewed as a flagrant when Garzon accidentally hit Davis in the face.
“She didn't look comfortable, and she struggled,” Maureen said of Garzon. “We need her, and I don't have an answer. You know, she had some other things going on, but we gotta get her back on track.”
IU shot better from the floor than Iowa in the first half, but those turnovers allowed the Hawkeyes plenty of shooting opportunities. Iowa took 37 shots from the floor in the first half, making 15, while IU made 29 (making 16),
IU's turnover woes continued in the second half, as the Hoosiers committed four turnovers in five minutes to start the third quarter. That stretch, with Carver-Hawkeye Arena howling again, led Iowa State to a 9-0 run and a nearly four-minute scoring drought for the Hoosiers.
Hoosiers get cold from beyond the arc
While the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers made roughly the same number of shots from the field Saturday night, the difference was how many of those shots were 3-pointers.
Both the Hoosiers and Hawkeyes struggled from beyond the arc in the first quarter, with IU going 1-of-4 from the three-point line and Iowa going 2-of-13. But that's where the similarities ended.
Clark led the charge against Iowa's barrage of 3-pointers on Saturday night, making six of her 16 shots beyond the arc (including one from the Hawkeyes). Hawkeye senior guard Gabe Marshall also found fire beyond the arc, hitting 4 of 7 for 12 points.
In contrast, IU's 3-point shooting has gone cold. Garzon was the Hoosiers' best shooter from beyond the arc on Saturday, going 3 of 7 from the field. Sarah Scalia and Sydney Parrish struggled from the 3-point line, but went 0-of-4 and 1-of-4 respectively.
“We weren't hitting,” Morin said. “There were moments where I thought we didn't look as organized offensively as we would like to look, and we were kind of going off script.”
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