No. 6 Iowa 93, No. 2 Ohio State 83: A Senior Day Shellacking

IOWA CITY — Caitlin Clark stands alone. Well, again.

Clark broke the NCAA's career scoring record for men's and women's ball passing former LSU great Pete Maravich with a technical-foul free throw early in the second half, giving her 18 points for the game and 3,668 for her career. Clark finished with 35 points and nine assists as No. 6 Iowa got its revenge against No. 2 Ohio State, 93-83, strengthening the Hawkeyes' tournament resume with another signature win at the outset of March.

Hannah Stuelke added 23 points and nine rebounds, including six on the offensive glass, while Gabbie Marshall added 12 points on four three-pointers. Jacy Sheldon led Ohio State with 24 points and nine assists.

1. Caitlin Clark is (still) a one of one. The Maravich record is splashy — it got the likes of Travis Scott, Nolan Ryan and the ESPN GameDay crew in the building, after all — but it's not as significant to the team as beating Ohio State. Indeed, Clark moved swiftly past the history talk, especially when asked if Maravich's record "stands out" to her.

"Honestly, no, not at this moment," Clark said. "A record is a record; I don't want that to be the reason people remember me."

READ MORE: Caitlin Clark Breaks Pete Maravich's NCAA Scoring Record

Bluder's comments were more pointed — befitting an former AIAW athlete and Dr. Christine Grant protégé like herself.

"To me, you don't have to break a man's record to be recognized," Bluder said. "You don't have to do that. To me, breaking Lynette [Woodard]'s record is significant."

Indeed, men's and women's college basketball are only nominally the same sport, and they don't typically share record books for reasons exactly like this. Bluder, as much as just about anybody in the sport, keeps her admirations steeped in history.

"Back then, there wasn't a lot of women's basketball on TV, so you didn't get to see Lynette Woodard play very often. So it was more like you heard about her scoring all these points. But also then, she was an Olympian, and so you got to see her in the Olympics, and then as a Harlem Globetrotter. But as a coach at St. Ambrose, I always used her on the front of my camp packets."

Record aside, Clark was in typically sensational form Sunday, with 35 points including six three-pointers. And as always, the stats barely make a dent in telling the story of what makes Clark's performances special.

Scott reveled in the gameday atmosphere, frequently on his feet for Iowa baskets and partying with the nearby Hawkeye band:

(Don't feel bad if you don't know who Scott is, by the way — after her postgame press conference Bluder admitted with a head shake that she hadn't heard of Scott, a hip hop star, before today, before adding, "but I've heard of Lynette Woodard!" on her way out the door. And thanks to Clark and the Iowa program, innumerable college basketball fans have now too.)

2. Reminder: Iowa is good enough to beat anybody. Only one of the teams on the Carver floor Sunday looked like it had won 16 straight games and locked up the Big Ten regular season title — and it wasn't Ohio State.

"I felt like we played a very dominant basketball game," Clark said. "I felt like we were in control of the game the entire time. Even when they made shots, we always had an answer."

Indeed, Iowa never trailed after the opening minutes of the game — OSU's last lead was 5-3 — and aside from a 7-0 Buckeye run to start the second half that cut Iowa's lead to two, the Hawkeyes never let Ohio State get back within a one-possession game.

"I'm proud of our group," said Clark. "When they went on their runs, we always had a response."

Bluder also acknowledged the team's response to Molly Davis' injury and OSU's mini-rally, but not before a little unintentional levity.

"They got it down, and then Caitlin knocked it up," Bluder said, before a (ahem) pregnant pause. "Caitlin hit a three and got us back on track," Bluder then clarified, after a healthy laugh.

Immaculate conceptions aside — Clark may be a miracle worker, but not like that — Iowa's resilience after OSU runs was the difference Sunday — the resilience of a team that believed it should win.

"You can say this is a 'statement,' but I think more than anything, it's just good momentum for our team going into the Big Ten tournament," Clark said. "So I think building off this is really important. And Coach Bluder always has us playing our best basketball during this time."

And make no mistake: OSU had earned its way to the door of South Carolina's penthouse atop the AP Top 25, winning 16 straight and taking the Big Ten regular season title outright. The No. 2 spot in the AP Poll may be cursed this season (OSU's loss was the ninth by a second-ranked team this year — three of them by Iowa alone), but it still takes a lot to make it there in the first place.

Key to Iowa's March prospects — especially after the injury to Molly Davis, which we'll get to — will be consistency from the rest of the backcourt scorers, especially senior Gabbie Marshall.

"Last year, she was crucial to our advancing into the national championship," Bluder said. "I mean, everybody knows what she does for us defensively, but when she can add that tonight, going 4-for-7 from three, it just opens up everything for everybody else."

Marshall helped keep Iowa in control of the game, especially in the third quarter when her two triples pushed the lead back to eight after OSU's early run, then to 14 late in the quarter as Iowa began putting the game out of reach.

3. Molly Davis will be missed. First things first: the team doesn't know the extent of Davis' injury and won't until Monday, but it was her knee, and it really didn't look good.

"Obviously, it's hard watching an injury like that," Clark said. "Molly's somebody that gives so much and plays so hard, you just want to do it for her."

Davis went through Senior Day postgame festivities in a wheelchair, her leg heavily wrapped, so barring a miracle — that'll do it for the dynamic guard's Hawkeye career.

The timing of the injury could have been especially damaging, as Iowa immediately gave up a pair of three-pointers in the ensuing action to see its lead cut from 10 points to four early in the second quarter, the last prompting an angry timeout from Bluder as the team asked fruitlessly for a moving screen call on OSU forward Rebeka Mikulasikova, who frequently drew the ire of fans at Carver for her physical play (and her 4-for-8 shooting from deep keeping the Buckeyes in the game).

"They went on a little run, and then we kind of gathered ourselves," Clark said. "I thought Sydney [Affolter] came in and played great, and I thought Kylie [Feuerbach] played really, really well, and that's what we're going to be going forward."

That "going forward" part is Iowa's challenge without Davis, as no single player on the team works as well as a ball-handler, distributor and playmaker working alongside Clark.

Indeed, Iowa went just 2-2 in the four games Davis missed recently with an unspecified illness; not to put too fine a point on it, but with only the Big Ten Tournament and March Madness waiting on the Hawkeyes' schedule, Iowa's national championship dreams cannot and do not have room for two more losses, especially as the quality of competition increases.

That said, even if Iowa can't replicate Davis' play with any single rotation player, the Hawkeyes can at least soften the blow with their other perimeter players' skills.

Marshall already starts alongside Davis, so there's only so much of the onus she can put on herself when she's used to playing a complementary role to Davis. Nonetheless, Marshall's defense, dribbling and perimeter shooting (when it's hot) are the closest Iowa's got to "another Molly."

Off the bench, Kylie Feuerbach finished with four steals Sunday, all of which came in the second half; Feuerbach frequently disrupted OSU's passing lanes, to the point where it looked like the Buckeyes were not planning on #4 jumping out on steals.

"That's how [Kylie's] always played," said Clark. "She always just has a really good eye to the ball, and she gets her hands into the passing lane. She's quick; she's got long arms. I think she got quite a few deflections that lead to either her getting the layup, or led to Gabbie making a three, or just giving us an extra possession on the other end."

Meanwhile, fellow bench mob menace Sydney Affolter (who finished with six points, seven rebounds, two assists, and a block Sunday) has grown as a playmaker in the second half of the season and is every bit the momentum generator that Davis can be, creating hustle plays and second chances with her tenacity.

Taylor McCabe is still primarily a three-point specialist for the Hawkeyes, and she'll need to be more reliable putting the ball on the floor to be an effective replacement for Davis. Still, McCabe's 48% shooting from behind the arc makes her enough of a weapon that Iowa may see how much they can get out of the 5'9" sophomore gunner.

Above all else, though: there's not another Molly Davis on this roster, and it's easy to make the case that there's not one in the rest of college basketball, either. To go down with what looks like a significant injury on Senior Day is a cruel twist of fate for Iowa's crafty point guard, and we hope Sunday wasn't the last time she'll lace her sneakers up as a competitive basketball player.

Iowa will be the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis. The Hawkeyes' first game will be Friday evening against the winner of the 7-10 seed matchup, tipping off at 5:30 PM CT. BTN will televise the game.