It wasn’t easy and Oregon State hung around for a while, but the Iowa Women’s Basketball team pulled away late to defeat the Beavers in the first round of the Phil Knight Legacy tournament. The Hawkeyes picked up the 73-59 victory behind another big night from Caitlin Clark.

The Hawkeyes took advantage of an 0/8 start from the floor from Oregon State and built a 9-0 lead three minutes into the game. Iowa hit three 3pt makes in the opening quarter, but a banked in shot from behind the arc from Jelena Mitrovic cut the Iowa lead to 19-16 at the end of the first.

The second quarter was back and forth through the first five minutes before a 10-2 run from the Hawkeyes capped by a Monika Czinano mid-range jumper forced OSU HC Scott Rueck to take a timeout. However, Texas Southern transfer Shalexxus Aaron had 12 points in the quarter, including two 3pt makes in the closing minutes to keep the Beavers within striking distance. Monika Czinano had 11 points in the quarter and her short jumper gave Iowa a 44-37 lead going into the halftime break.

After a combined 46 points in the second quarter, the shooting fell off in the third, with the teams combining for just 19 points on 9/31 shooting, including 0/7 from behind the arc. The Hawkeyes were able to build their lead as high as 11 and went to the fourth with a 54-46 lead after both teams went scoreless over the last 2:58 of the quarter.

McKenna Warnock opened the final stanza with a three-pointer, but a 5-0 run from the Beavers closed the gap to 57-51 and forced Lisa Bluder to take a timeout. The Hawkeyes responded with a 15-4 run to put the game away and the final minutes of the game ticked down with relatively no drama.

“I was happy with 18 assists on nine turnovers. We always strive to go two-for-one in those categories,” said Coach Lisa Bluder. “I was pleased with how we continued to battle.”

Caitlin Clark was the star of the game scoring 28 points on 12/23 shooting, while adding on nine rebounds and eight assists. Monika Czinano had 17 points on 7/11 shooting, while she grabbed seven rebounds of her own. McKenna Warnock had a pair of three point makes and finished with 12 points, while Kate Martin had six rebounds to go along with four assists.

The story of the game and arguably the difference in the game was the defense in the paint by the Hawkeyes. There was concern coming in with Iowa’s ability to keep 6’9 Jelena Mitrovic and true freshman Raegan Beers from making a large impact. They came into the game averaging 25.5 points and 6.75 offensive rebounds per game. Tonight, they had 9 points on 4/12 shooting, as well as three offensive rebounds and seven turnovers.

“This opportunity to play in this tournament is awesome. They’ve taken good care of us out here and it’s truly a privilege to have been selected to play,” said Bluder. “Looking forward to breaking down the film on UConn and we will be ready for Sunday.”

The win sets up a match-up that has been talked about since the minute the bracket was unveiled. The ninth ranked Hawkeyes will get the third ranked UConn Huskies on Sunday for a chance to bring some hardware back to Iowa City. The game is at 12:00pm CT and will be nationally televised on ABC.