The #2 seed Hawkeyes did what they were expected to do against a #15 seed.
Took care of business.
The Iowa Women’s Basketball team rolled past the Illinois State Redbirds in front of a sellout crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to punch their ticket to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes outscored ISU 55-29 in the second half to carry them to a 98-58 victory.
“I really want to thank the crowd that came out. Our fans were amazing, and they braved parking problems today, they braved rain, and they still got here,” said Head Coach Lisa Bluder. “Just come again on Sunday.”
The Redbirds landed the first punch, courtesy of Mary Crompton, who buried a pair of 3pt shots and had eight early points, to get them out to a 12-7 advantage. The Hawkeyes countered the ISU hot start with a 14-3 run of their own to take a 21-15 lead into the quarter break. The glaring stat from the first quarter, was zero shot attempts for Monika Czinano.
Illinois State clogged the lane with double teams on Czinano and kept her from getting paint touches. It was something that Bluder talked about coming into the match-up, but they just had to settle in and wait for the chances to come. They did.
Czinano became the focal point in the second quarter and led with nine points on 4/4 shooting from the floor. The Hawkeyes also forced five turnovers and turned that into nine points. Caitlin Clark’s 15 first half points and six assists helped Iowa extend their lead to 43-29 at the half and it was smooth sailing from there.
“I think as the game goes on it's hard to come double and leave my teammates open. They're all deadly,” said Czinano. “Once that kind of settled down and we were hitting from the outside, it made it a lot easier to get it inside in that second quarter, and I think that just getting everybody involved, including me, was huge.”
A 9-0 run from the Hawkeyes run to open the third quarter, was capped off with a Gabbie Marshall 3pt make, forcing Illinois State head coach Kristen Gillespie to use a timeout, but Lisa Bluder’s squad was off and running. They would outscore the Redbirds 31-18 in the third quarter and 24-11 in the fourth quarter to finish off a workmanlike performance in the opening round.
Caitlin Clark recorded a double-double with 27 points, 10 assists and six rebounds, while Monika Czinano bounced back from a slow start to finish with 18 points on 6/6 shooting from the floor.
“I'm just kind of disappointed she didn't get more shots. She's six for six, she's perfect from the field, she's perfect from the free-throw line, six for six. Why are we not giving her more shots,?” said Lisa Bluder. “We've got to give her the ball a little bit more, to let her go to work.”
Gabbie Marshall and Tomi Taiwo combined to shoot 6/10 from behind the arc, with each adding 13 points in the winning effort. Addison O’Grady altered a couple of shots on the defensive end and added seven points.
“The more weapons you have, the harder you are to defend. Everybody knows about Caitlin and Monika, so when those other guys are contributing like that -- when McKenna, Tomi, Kate hit a three tonight, Gabbie, where are you going to put your focus,” said Bluder. “It just makes us an offensive juggernaut, and we love it.”
The Hawkeyes took care of the ball, turning it over just 11 times and assisted on 25 of 33 made shots on the afternoon. They were able to outscore the Redbirds 24-2 in transition and 34-20 in the paint, which were the key areas of advantage going into the match-up.
The win is the eighth in a row for Iowa and more importantly moves them into the second round of the tournament. They will take on the Creighton Bluejays on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, with a trip to the Sweet 16 in Greensboro on the line. The #10 seeded Jays defeated the #7 Colorado 84-74 earlier in the day. A game time is still to be determined.
