Oftentimes, the singular effort of Caitlin Clark is enough to carry the Iowa Hawkeyes to victory. It’s why the No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers, though a more complete team than No. 5 Iowa, had reason to worry entering their matchup with the Hawkeyes Thursday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.
But Grace Berger, who was already a three-time First Team All-Big Ten selection and the 16th-ranked player on Winsidr’s 2023 WNBA Draft big board, played closer to Clark’s level of superstardom than her own with 26 points, nine rebounds and six assists, leading the Hoosiers to an 87-78 win that emphatically backed up their No. 2 status.
Iowa tied the game at 62 on a deep second-chance 3-pointer by McKenna Warnock with 8:25 remaining, but Indiana answered with a 7-0 run and led by at least five the rest of the way. Not surprisingly, clutch freshman Yarden Garzon made the biggest shot of the game: a transition three that made it 67-62 at the 7:39 mark of the fourth. But it was set up by Indiana’s national Player of the Year candidate Mackenzie Holmes poking the ball away on the previous possession and barely saving it from going out of bounds. Holmes also started the run with an offensive rebound-turned-layup. Berger finished it with two free throws at 7:16 to go after…
