It doesn’t have to be pretty and sometimes it can even be ugly, but the ultimate goal in sports is to finish with more points than the opponent. The Iowa Women’s basketball team accomplished that goal, as they scrapped out a 72-67 overtime win over Northwestern tonight.

“That is a good Northwestern team. Their record is not indicative (of their talent level),” said Lisa Bluder. “Veronica Burton was outstanding, but I think Gabbie and Tomi did a great job defending her, trying to make her life miserable.”

It is Iowa’s seventh straight victory, and it snaps a three-game losing streak to the Wildcats, who have been a thorn in the side of the Hawkeyes recently.

“It feels nice, kind of got that monkey off our back. I had previously gone 0-3,” said Caitlin Clark. “I think we’ve played really well on the road, so having that experience and learning from last game (against Northwestern). They made it super challenging on us, and we really had to earn it.”

The game got off to an ugly start for both teams and Monika Czinano picked up two early fouls, which forced freshman Addison O’Grady and AJ Ediger on to the court. The Hawkeyes were just 5/18 from the floor in the first quarter and they trailed the Wildcats 13-11.

The Northwestern “Blizzard” defense caused the same issues for Iowa, as the first meeting and the Cats forced 13 turnovers in the first half. Even though the first half was really ugly for the Hawkeyes, they went into the half trailing just 31-28.

The Cats came out strong in the second half with back-to-back three point makes by Veronica Burton and Laya Hartman. With the Hawkeyes on the ropes down 44-32, Lisa Bluder took a timeout to try to regroup her team.

Trailing 46-34, the Hawkeyes would make a push of their own over the next nine minutes. Iowa would go on a 19-4 run capped off by a Caitlin Clark basket and the foul to give the Hawkeyes their first lead at 53-50. The comeback effort was helped immensely by a nearly six-minute scoreless stretch from the Wildcats.

“They were ready for our triangle and two because it was our best defense the first time, we played them. We thought we could zone them, but we were having troubles,” said Bluder on trying to settle into a defense. “Our player defense was doing ok. The ball screens were hurting us, Burton coming off those ball screens…player was our better defense tonight and we could box out a little better in our player defense vs our zone.”

Northwestern freshman Melannie Daley had 22 points in the first meeting vs Iowa and despite scoring just 27 over the last five games, her basket with 31.5 to go gave her 10 points, while tying the game at 61 apiece.

Controversy would ensue with the game on the line. Off a Caitlin Clark missed shot, Jillian Brown led a runout for a Wildcats basket. However, the clock operator stopped the clock with 3.9 remaining expecting a timeout and after a lengthy review, the refs ruled that the basket did not count.

“There was an inadvertent whistle, which stopped the clock. They went back and timed it and realized that the shot would not have went off in time. So, they just went to overtime,” explained Bluder.

Overtime was low scoring early and a Veronica Burton basket gave the Cats a 64-63 lead, but as the saying goes “Big players make big time plays in big time games” and Caitlin Clark delivered. Despite turning it over 11 times over the course of the game, Clark hit a step back 3pt shot to give the Hawkeyes a 66-64 lead. A missed shot by Melannie Daley led to Caitlin Clark free throws and Iowa escaped with a 72-67 victory.

Caitlin Clark finished the game with 28 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, while Monika Czinano had her best rebounding effort the season. Her 16 rebounds were the most she has grabbed in a game since 2019 and she also added 24 points.

“Way too many turnovers tonight. I think I could have learned earlier in the game not to keep forcing it inside to Monika,” said Clark. “Their post is super athletic, and you don’t always see that in the Big Ten. Kind of just jumped up there and got a lot of my lob passes.”

Lisa Bluder’s squad lost the points off turnovers/second chance points battle 33-19 and their 25 turnovers are the most they have committed all season. However, they fought through it all. They fought through a 14-point deficit and pulled out the win. Sometimes, you win a game and you don’t ask how. You just move on to the next game.

The Hawkeyes next game on Monday night will be a big one, as the 15-4 Ohio State Buckeyes travel to Carver-Hawekye Arena. The game is at 8:00 pm and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.