In front of what is expected to be the largest home crowd in program history, Ohio State’s women’s basketball team will have its most anticipated matchup of the season against Iowa at noon Sunday.

With the biggest name in college basketball, Caitlin Clark, playing in what might be her final collegiate game at Value City Arena, and the Hawkeyes riding a 15-game winning streak, the ball is in the Buckeyes’ court to make a statement and pull off the upset.

Ohio State is no stranger to this Iowa roster and has seen Clark in its past five outings against the Hawkeyes. The Buckeyes have a 3-2 record in those matchups over the past three seasons, but the losses are fresh wounds as both occurred last year, the most recent one being a 105-72 loss in the Big Ten tournament final.

The impact of having a player such as Clark can never be understated. It is something that Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff has seen become even more of a threat every year.

“I think where she’s impacted their program the most this is, just last year and especially this year, she’s making everybody around her better,” McGuff said. “I think early on people focused on how much she was scoring. She’s going to score, but it’s really about how well she makes everybody around her better.”

More on Caitlin Clark in Columbus: The Caitlin Clark effect: How it’s impacting young women’s basketball fans in Columbus

Defending against Clark and the Hawkeyes

Averaging around 90 points per game, all the Hawkeyes’ scoring can’t just come from Clark, even if she does lead the nation with 31 points per game and is fourth on the NCAA all-time scoring list. Around her, there are players such as Kate Martin and Hannah Stuelke, who are contributing by averaging double-digit scoring.

As a team that usually relies on an “all or nothing” press to generate turnovers and has been improving in its half-court defense, Ohio State will have to be locked in while defending against Iowa. One of the Buckeyes’ newest additions, Celeste Taylor, who is the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year, is confident in her team’s abilities based on their practices.

“When we go against each other in practice, we’re playing against great players all the time,” Taylor said. “That helps us prepare for games like this against really good players, who have multiple threats on the floor.”

Knowing how important the time between the Maryland victory on Wednesday and the upcoming Iowa game has been, having strong outings in practice is Ohio State’s main focus. McGuff admits it is difficult to simulate the skills of Clark during practice because of the way Iowa’s offensive runs through her.

The sellout crowd will also factor into the game. With more than 18,000 people expected to attend, Value City Arena is going to be loud. To help ensure his team can communicate through the noise, McGuff considered turning up the music at practice.

The challenge of containing Clark excites the Buckeyes, especially Taylor, who hasn’t faced Iowa since her junior year at Duke.

“We’re going be all over the place. It’ll probably be between me and TT (Taylor Thierry),” Taylor said in terms of who will be defending Clark. “But everybody’s going to have their hand in it, because it’s not just one-on-one, it’s a team against another team.”

The road to the Hawkeyes

There have been other challenges the Buckeyes have had to face prior to this game.

Opening the season up with a loss to Southern California and then falling to then-No. 2 UCLA a month later, Ohio State saw tough competition early on. More recently, the Big Ten schedule has proven to a challenge, with Ohio State already being handed a conference loss on the road against Michigan.

Even in their last two victories over Michigan State and Maryland, the Buckeyes were fighting to the end.

“These difficult teams leading up to this Iowa game has been really good for us,” Theirry said. “It’s exposed us in some areas that we need to improve in.”

The Buckeyes are ranked third to last in the conference in rebounding and will be going up against and Iowa team that is leading the Big Ten in that category.

If the Buckyes are going to win this game, they need everyone to be contributing on offense. After going 4 for 26 from the 3-point line against Maryland, the Buckeyes will need to find ways to get to the basket if that trend continues on Sunday, which might prove to be difficult against Iowa’s defense.

“They play a lot of zone,” McGuff said. “So I think they’re going to try to force us to score from the perimeter. So we have to make shots and but also execute in a way where we can get some balance in our offense.”

bmackay@dispatch.com

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