Caitlin Clark and the No. 1 seed Iowa Hawkeyes began their 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament run with a 91-65 win over No. 16 Holy Cross in Iowa City on Saturday. The Hawkeyes will now play the winner of West Virginia and Princeton in the second round on Monday.
This was the first game for Iowa since winning the Big Ten Tournament championship in dramatic fashion on March 10, and for stretches it looked very much like a team that had not played in two weeks. That was especially true early on, as Clark had as many turnovers (five) as points in the first quarter. The Hawkeyes led by just two after the opening 10 minutes.
“I thought they made a lot of shots, they competed really well,” Clark said. “Gotta give it credit to them. I don’t know if we really played our best basketball there. Obviously a little rust, but I thought we could have executed our offense a little better. I thought we responded really well, we always had an answer.”
Perhaps nothing summed up the early frustration better than Clark’s dad appearing to tell her to stop as she complained to the referees late in the second quarter.
“Maybe a little too hard [on myself],” Clark said. “I should probably smile more. I’m just…
