The Iowa girls’s basketball workforce is heading to the Candy 16 for the third time in 4 years.
Caitlin Clark and the top-seeded Hawkeyes superior with a 64-54 victory over eighth-seeded West Virginia in Monday’s Albany 2 Area second-round showdown at Carver-Hawkeye Area. They may face No. 5 Colorado within the subsequent spherical after the Buffaloes defeated fourth-seeded Kansas State.
As is all the time the case when Iowa takes the ground, the principle storyline was Clark.
The record-breaking guard, who turned the NCAA Division I all-time main scorer earlier this 12 months by passing Pete Maravich and can virtually assuredly be the No. 1 total choose of the 2024 NBA draft, is the most important identify within the sport and as soon as once more led the best way for her facet with 32 factors and eight rebounds.
She entered play simply 29 factors away from surpassing Kelsey Plum’s Division 1 girls’s faculty basketball report of 1,109 factors in a single season and set the mark with a late free throw.
Fittingly, she drew loads of response on social media:
Clark wasted no time setting the tone when she drained three three-pointers within the first quarter alone, however West Virginia held her to simply two factors within the second quarter whereas dialing up the defensive strain and swarming her everywhere in the ground.
The Mountaineers compelled 15 complete turnovers, six of which have been Clark’s. There have been instances when Iowa gave the impression to be urgent and enjoying tight, which led to a number of the errors.
That defensive strain did not go away even when Iowa prolonged its result in double digits on two separate events within the third quarter. That, together with outdoors taking pictures from JJ Quinerly and Kyah Watson, allowed the guests to persistently battle again and hold the strain firmly on the Hawkeyes’ facet.
Iowa’s offense was both Clark or nothing for a lot of the sport, which labored when she powered her means into the lane for an and-1 however was an issue when the Mountaineers compelled the ball out of her arms and created turnovers whereas they have been in comeback mode.
The house workforce’s first subject purpose of the fourth quarter did not come till there have been simply two minutes and three seconds remaining when Sydney Affolter transformed an and-1 to interrupt the tie after a monster block from Gabbie Marshall on the opposite finish.
From there, Quinerly fouled out and Iowa ended up extending its ultimate free-throw benefit over West Virginia to 30-5 by the ultimate whistle. Clark (eight) had practically as many subject objectives as the remainder of her workforce mixed (9), and the Hawkeyes survived thanks largely to the distinction in fouls.
However it’ll doubtless take higher offensive efforts to succeed in the Remaining 4 because the event continues.