It was a much slower game than the No. 4 Iowa Hawkeyes (9-1) asked against their in-state rival, the Iowa State Cyclones (4-4). It ended up being a low scoring game, but the Hawkeyes were able to stave off a real challenge by the Cyclones for a 67-58 road victory.
With the win, Iowa completed the intra-state sweep, with victories against Drake, Northern Iowa and Iowa State.
It was a back-and-forth game with the young, scrappy Cyclones proving that they could hang with the defending national runner-ups. The game was tied nine different times and there were a total of 12 lead changes. Head coach Lisa Bluder said:
We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game. They slowed the ball down and did a good job at that, but our defense in the second half was really good, especially in the fourth quarter after they took the lead. Half time we talked about three-point defense, and they didn’t have a single three in the second half.
Caitlin Clark finished with a game-high 35 points, along with nine rebounds and five assists. She also became the 15th player in NCAA Division I history to reach 3,000 career points.
She knew going in that she was playing before a largely hostile sold-out crowd at the Hilton Coliseum nearby her native West Des Moines. However, she embraced the…
