Before a sold-out crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes looked to close out the regular season on a high note as they took on the very talented No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers. Due to Indiana capturing the outright Big Ten regular season title, the Hawkeyes weren’t in a position to recapture what they had achieved last year. However, they were still in position to secure a No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis.
They did just that and then some.
From the start, the energy was palpable beyond belief and the Hawkeyes fed off of that as they quickly jumped out to a remarkable 13-2 lead. Sharpshooting, superb ball handling and ferocious defense were key. Already the crowd was on their feet with some encouragement from Caitlin Clark.
Toward the halfway point of the quarter, Indiana started to come back with some decent shooting of their own and by taking advantage of a couple of Iowa turnovers. At the 5:17 mark of the first, the Hoosiers had gone on a 6-0 run to cut the Hawkeye lead to 13-8.
Knowing that the momentum was starting to switch, the Hawkeyes relied on their defense and crashed the boards to stay in command. It also helped when Clark made a 3-pointer from the logo at the 4:31 mark to put them up 16-8. Then, Kate Martin converted on a…
