Iowa 80, Nebraska 60: Pulling Away

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

Monika Czinano added 20 points and seven rebounds on 10-for-13 shooting, with four of her makes assisted by Clark. Iowa shot 54% from the field in the victory, including 10-of-20 shooting from behind the arc as a team.

Iowa's victory pushed the Hawkeyes to 22-5 and 14-2 in the Big Ten with two games left to play. Iowa remains in second place in the B1G behind No. 2 Indiana, and is now guaranteed no worse than a third-place finish in conference play.

As refreshing as a 20-point victory is after the last time the two teams met, it could have been even more lopsided. Iowa went on a 17-0 run that took up most of the fourth quarter, ballooning the lead to 78-49 before the Huskers finally hit a flurry of threes at chips-and-salsa time.

Accordingly, the game was actually competitive in the first half; Nebraska never led in the game, but did have it tied at 31-31 with 4:47 left in the second quarter. Iowa pushed the lead to 7 by the break, thanks to a deep three and a late assist by Clark, and the Hawkeyes never looked back in the second half.

The story of the game is certainly Nebraska shooting itself out of contention, but credit must go to the Hawkeye defense for that. Iowa's switch to a zone defense in the second half confounded the Huskers, who were betrayed by the jump shots they were forced to rely on.

After an Issie Bourne three-pointer to start the second half closed the gap to 40-36, Nebraska missed 13 (thirteen) consecutive attempts from deep. Iowa ran away with the game from there, silencing the record-high crowd at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

The "game within the game" battle happened on the interior, as Czinano was matched up against Bourne and Alexis Markowski. Markowski managed 15 points in the losing effort and forced three Czinano turnovers, but "only" collected nine rebounds — not an unproductive number, but small enough to break her eight-game streak of double-digit rebounds.

Czinano, Hannah Stuelke and Addison O'Grady also shut down Nebraska's interior offense in conjunction with the switch to the zone; the Huskers' last layup attempt came with 6:56 left in the third quarter, and it was brick city from deep after that.

Nebraska point guard Jaz Shelley finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and four assists in 38 minutes of play, while given the unenviable and usually fruitless task of slowing Clark down. Shelley's scoring was a little inflated by two late threes, but the points all count the same on the score sheet.

Box score is available here.

Some things are so obvious that they rarely require mention. The Pacific Ocean is large. The sun is bright. And Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano are great basketball players.

Clark's scoring will rightfully grab the headlines, as she's now 7-0 in games against Nebraska — with at least 30 points in each of them. Yet her overall dominance of the game was most apparent on Saturday. Clark didn't play mistake-free ball (that's not even her style of play), but she made pass after pass that most guards wouldn't even attempt, and deftly navigated a hostile road environment — and a defense with no qualms about playing physically.

Czinano was challenged often defensively, especially in the first half, but she was every bit the equal to Nebraska's attack. Shooting 10-for-13 from the field is only commonplace to a few players in the nation, and Czinano is one of them. The referees were content to let the bigs bang — Czinano didn't even attempt a free throw in the winning effort — so making such a high percentage of shots was crucial for Iowa to establish and eventually expand its lead on Saturday.

Clark praised Czinano in their postgame TV interview, specifically for Czinano's skill in catching the fastball passes from Clark with such regularity, but their dominance Saturday (and all season) is about more than soft hands. Clark attempts those passes because she knows Czinano can catch them, and Czinano knows where and when to expect those passes.

Great teammates playing together for several years makes them both better at basketball and working with each other. Again, some things are so obvious that they rarely require mention.

Iowa returns to action on Tuesday, February 21 at 7:00 PM CT at #8 Maryland. The Terps are 22-5 overall and 13-3 in the Big Ten, having just closed out a win at Michigan State. Maryland is the only team left who can pass Iowa for third place in the Big Ten. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.