Iowa suffered their first lack of the season of their final recreation — a painful 84-83 upset loss to Kansas State in Manhattan, KS. How would they reply to that defeat, particularly with Caitlin Clark’s well being in query after she suffered a sprained ankle on the ultimate recreation of the Ok-State recreation? How would they take care of a tough Belmont workforce that is anticipated to be one of many high groups within the Missouri Valley Convention and gave #6 Louisville a tricky recreation earlier this season? The solutions to all of these questions — how Iowa would reply, how they’d take care of Belmont, and Clark’s well being — have been fortunately constructive. 

The outlook for Clark seemed good earlier than the sport when she was draining 3s at a very good clip within the pre-game shootaround. 

Caitlin Clark is warming up and hitting threes so I believe she’s good to go for right now’s recreation.

— John Bohnenkamp (@johnbohnenkamp) November 20, 2022

She adopted up that pre-game show with a 33-point effort in opposition to the Bruins, going 10/18 from the ground, 3/7 from three-point vary, and a crisp 10/11 from the free throw line. After some tough capturing video games earlier this season, it was good to see that flip round a bit right here. You knew extra pictures would begin falling for her in some unspecified time in the future, but it surely was nonetheless a reduction to see it clicking. 

The Bruins jumped out to an 8-3 lead and really led for a lot of the first quarter. A pair of Clark free throws tied the sport at 18-all after the primary ten minutes. Capturing was the principle distinction between the groups within the opening quarter — Belmont was fairly scorching (8/16), Iowa was not (5/14). The Hawkeyes have been in a position to preserve it shut by attending to the free throw line, the place they transformed 7/8 makes an attempt. 

Iowa’s capturing did not actually flip round within the second quarter (the Hawkeyes shot simply 5/15 total and 0/5 from deep), however they have been nonetheless in a position to open up a lead on Belmont as a result of the Bruins went ice chilly. Belmont was 3/19 within the second quarter, together with 1/13 (!) from distance. Belmont made a three-pointer 30 seconds into the quarter — after which made two baskets for the rest of the quarter. After the sport was tied 25-25 with 5:40 to play earlier than halftime, Iowa outscored them 7-0 and entered the break with a 32-25 lead. Hannah Stuelke had a very good quarter — she performed virtually eight minutes and had 7 factors and three rebounds on 2/5 capturing (3/4 FT). 

Each Iowa and Belmont went on runs within the third quarter. Iowa constructed up a 12-point lead (45-33) over the primary 4 minutes of the interval, earlier than Belmont went on a 11-2 run over the subsequent 4 minutes to chop Iowa’s result in three factors (47-44). Iowa used an 8-2 run to complete the quarter to take a 55-46 lead into the ultimate interval. The tip results of all that backwards and forwards was that Iowa managed to construct their lead by two coming into the ultimate quarter. Clark actually asserted herself within the third quarter, scoring 13 factors on 5/8 capturing and dishing a pair of assists. Iowa’s three-point capturing on the whole lastly began to click on a bit, as they made 4/7 long-range efforts. 

Within the fourth quarter, Iowa managed to maintain Belmont at arm’s size for some time, earlier than lastly stretching the result in double-digits — and holding it there — to shut issues out. After Belmont reduce Iowa’s result in 4 (60-56) with just a little over 5 minutes to play, Iowa went on an 8-1 run over the subsequent three minutes to wrap issues up. The fourth quarter was one other robust exhibiting for Clark, as she had 11 factors on 3/4 capturing (1/2 3FG) and 4/4 FT. She scored or assisted on 7 of Iowa’s 8 factors in that decisive 8-1 run late within the recreation. 

It was a tough recreation for Hawkeyes apart from Clark, frankly. No different Iowa gamers completed in double figures in scoring. Monika Czinano had 9 factors and 10 rebounds on 4/7 capturing. Iowa’s different three starters — Gabbie Marshall, McKenna Warnock, and Kate Martin — mixed for 17 factors on 5/16 capturing, which is fairly tough. Iowa received 14 factors off the bench — 7 apiece from Stuelke and Molly Davis. For the sport, Iowa shot simply 24/57 (42%) total and seven/24 (29%) from 3-point vary.

That type of awful capturing effort would have spelled catastrophe in Iowa’s final two outings (shootouts in opposition to Drake and Kansas State), however Iowa averted a second-straight loss on Sunday due to improved effort on protection. The Hawkeyes did a greater job of contesting Belmont pictures and saved them off the glass (Belmont had simply eight offensive rebounds). Along with the virtually six-minute scoreless interval to finish the second quarter, Iowa held Belmont to only two made area targets within the remaining seven minutes of the fourth quarter. With Iowa’s personal offense out of types (thanks partially to Belmont’s slow-it-down type), the Hawkeyes needed to choose up the slack elsewhere and it was a constructive to see them do it on the defensive finish right now. Hopefully that pays dividends in future video games as effectively. 

It is good that Iowa was in a position to get again on monitor right now as a result of there are some large challenges looming over the subsequent few weeks. Iowa is off till Friday, after they face Oregon State within the Phil Knight Legacy Faculty Basketball Event in Portland, OR. They’re going to play both Duke or #5 UConn of their second recreation of that match on Sunday. And the Thursday after that Iowa is about to play #10 NC State within the Massive Ten-ACC Problem in Iowa Metropolis. However Iowa’s a workforce with large goals for the season and massive goals means large video games — we’re desperate to see if the Hawkeyes are in a position to rise to the problem of these large video games.