Go Iowa Awesome – Iowa 80, Nebraska 60: Pulling Away

Caitlin Clark scored 30 factors — for the thirtieth time in her profession — and No. 8 Iowa shut the Nebraska Cornhuskers down within the second half to cruise to an 80-60 victory.

Monika Czinano added 20 factors and 7 rebounds on 10-for-13 capturing, with 4 of her makes assisted by Clark. Iowa shot 54% from the sphere within the victory, together with 10-of-20 capturing from behind the arc as a group.

Iowa’s victory pushed the Hawkeyes to 22-5 and 14-2 within the Large Ten with two video games left to play. Iowa stays in second place within the B1G behind No. 2 Indiana, and is now assured no worse than a third-place end in convention play.

As refreshing as a 20-point victory is after the final time the 2 groups met, it might have been much more lopsided. Iowa went on a 17-0 run that took up a lot of the fourth quarter, ballooning the result in 78-49 earlier than the Huskers lastly hit a flurry of threes at chips-and-salsa time.

Accordingly, the sport was really aggressive within the first half; Nebraska by no means led within the recreation, however did have it tied at 31-31 with 4:47 left within the second quarter. Iowa pushed the result in 7 by the break, because of a deep three and a late help by Clark, and the Hawkeyes by no means seemed again within the second half.

The story of the sport is definitely Nebraska capturing itself out of rivalry, however credit score should go to the Hawkeye protection for that. Iowa’s change to a zone protection within the second half confounded the Huskers, who had been betrayed by the bounce pictures they had been pressured to depend on.

After an Issie Bourne three-pointer to start out the second half closed the hole to 40-36, Nebraska missed 13 (13) consecutive makes an attempt from deep. Iowa ran away with the sport from there, silencing the record-high crowd at Pinnacle Financial institution Area.

The “recreation throughout the recreation” battle occurred on the inside, as Czinano was matched up in opposition to Bourne and Alexis Markowski. Markowski managed 15 factors within the dropping effort and compelled three Czinano turnovers, however “solely” collected 9 rebounds — not an unproductive quantity, however sufficiently small to interrupt her eight-game streak of double-digit rebounds.

Czinano, Hannah Stuelke and Addison O’Grady additionally shut down Nebraska’s inside offense along side the change to the zone; the Huskers’ final layup try got here with 6:56 left within the third quarter, and it was brick metropolis from deep after that.

Nebraska level guard Jaz Shelley completed with 19 factors, 9 rebounds and 4 assists in 38 minutes of play, whereas given the unenviable and normally fruitless activity of slowing Clark down. Shelley’s scoring was somewhat inflated by two late threes, however the factors all rely the identical on the rating sheet.

Field rating is obtainable right here.

Some issues are so apparent that they hardly ever require point out. The Pacific Ocean is massive. The solar is vivid. And Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano are nice basketball gamers.

Clark’s scoring will rightfully seize the headlines, as she’s now 7-0 in video games in opposition to Nebraska — with not less than 30 factors in every of them. But her general dominance of the sport was most obvious on Saturday. Clark did not play mistake-free ball (that is not even her fashion of play), however she made cross after cross that the majority guards would not even try, and deftly navigated a hostile street atmosphere — and a protection with no qualms about enjoying bodily.

Czinano was challenged typically defensively, particularly within the first half, however she was each bit the equal to Nebraska’s assault. Taking pictures 10-for-13 from the sphere is just commonplace to some gamers within the nation, and Czinano is considered one of them. The referees had been content material to let the bigs bang — Czinano did not even try a free throw within the successful effort — so making such a excessive share of pictures was essential for Iowa to ascertain and finally broaden its lead on Saturday.

Clark praised Czinano of their postgame TV interview, particularly for Czinano’s ability in catching the fastball passes from Clark with such regularity, however their dominance Saturday (and all season) is about greater than comfortable fingers. Clark makes an attempt these passes as a result of she is aware of Czinano can catch them, and Czinano is aware of the place and when to anticipate these passes.

Nice teammates enjoying collectively for a number of years makes them each higher at basketball and dealing with one another. Once more, some issues are so apparent that they hardly ever require point out.

Iowa returns to motion on Tuesday, February 21 at 7:00 PM CT at #8 Maryland. The Terps are 22-5 general and 13-3 within the Large Ten, having simply closed out a win at Michigan State. Maryland is the one group left who can cross Iowa for third place within the Large Ten. The sport will probably be televised on the Large Ten Community.