Iowa 105, Ohio State 72: WOODSHED, MN, 55403

Shout out to Marc Morehouse and the original Woodshed headline.

Iowa has proven a lot of doubters wrong this season. The Hawks started the year ranked in the Top 5 of the pre-season AP Poll, but quickly fell down the rankings after some close early-season losses. Iowa fell as low as 16th on two different occasions, and the consensus seemed to be that Iowa had been overrated coming into the season. The Athletic even concluded in mid-January that Iowa wasn’t a serious Final Four contender.

At that point, the criticisms of Iowa were numerous, and perhaps deserved. Some thought that Iowa relied too heavily on Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano. Others said the supporting cast wasn’t good enough for a top-10 team. Still others said that Iowa couldn’t win big games if an opponent doubled Czinano and limited her impact on games. And still others said that Gabbie Marshall should be removed from Iowa’s starting lineup due to her shooting slump.

In the past month-and-a-half, Iowa has beaten every top Big Ten team at least once. The Hawks have grown as a team and withstood defenses throwing everything at Clark and Czinano trying to stop them. That all culminated yesterday with Iowa’s 89-84 victory over Maryland, in quite possibly the best team performance Iowa has had in the Caitlin Clark era. Marshall was on fire from three. McKenna Warnock hit big shots, big free throws, and grabbed the biggest rebound of the game. Kate Martin played great defense and got close to a triple-double. And Clark and Czinano had big impacts as usual.

That win put Iowa put back in the Big Ten Tournament championship game for a third straight season. With a win, Iowa would have a faint but real shot at its first 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament since 1992.

Both teams were noticeably sloppy to start the game. Iowa turned it over four times in the first 2:36 of game action. Ohio State missed plenty of shots, including a few right around the basket. Finally the offenses started to get going a bit, and Iowa led 10-7 at the under-5 timeout.

Little did Ohio State realize that this timeout was the last time this Big Ten Championship Game would be competitive.

Iowa caught fire as soon as play resumed with a 10-0 run, and the Hawks led 20-7 when Ohio State called for timeout with 2:57 to play in the quarter.

The timeout barely slowed Iowa down, and Clark found Hannah Stuelke for a layup at the buzzer to give Iowa a 26-9 leading heading to the second quarter. Iowa shot an insane 83% from the floor in the first quarter, while Ohio State struggled at 22%.

Clark hit a three on the first possession of the second quarter, and Iowa’s lead was 20 at 29-9. Ohio State finally got a basket to answer, but Iowa kept on firing. Clark hit another three with 8:37 to play in the quarter and Ohio State called timeout again with Iowa leading 34-11.

Somehow Iowa kept rolling along, and after two Sydney Affolter free throws after the under-5 timeout, Iowa pushed its lead to an unbelievable 46-15. At that point, Clark was outscoring Ohio State by herself.

Iowa closed the quarter just as dominant as it was in the first 15 minutes, and the Hawkeyes led 61-24 at halftime — the most points Iowa had ever scored in the first half of a Big Ten game. The Hawks shot 72% in the half. Clark had 23 points, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds IN 20 MINUTES.

Ohio State came out fighting and pressing early in the third quarter, and quickly cut Iowa’s lead to 30. The Buckeye "rally" effectively stopped there, as Iowa got things going offensively and stopped any further bleeding. The two teams battled back and forth the rest of the quarter, and a Martin runner at the buzzer gave Iowa an 83-54 lead heading to the fourth quarter.

Both teams left their starters in for the first 5-6 minutes of the fourth quarter, and the Hawks extended their lead again; it was 101-63 when Clark checked out for good, triple-double secured.

Iowa ultimately won, 105-72. Iowa’s 105 points were a record for most points scored in a Big Ten Tournament championship game. Iowa’s 33-point margin of victory was also a record for the championship game.

In the first Iowa-Ohio State game, Clark had a remarkable 28 points, 15 assists, and 10 rebounds — probably her best stat line of the regular season.

Somehow she topped that on Sunday.

Clark left with four minutes to go in the 4th quarter after scoring 30 points, dishing 17 assists, and grabbing 10 rebounds. She was throwing dimes at will through all four quarters, and her volume of scoring and assisting set new standards of performance across D-I basketball. What a performance from the near-indisputable favorite for Player of the Year.

Czinano was phenomenal again, scoring 26 points on 11-12 shooting from the floor with 7 rebounds to boot. Martin was solid as ever, adding 11 points. Affolter continues to be a spark off the bench. She had 11 in this one and made some very tough plays. Warnock didn’t get to double-digit points, but she did have 11 rebounds.

A box score for the game is here.

It would’ve been easy for Iowa to get down after its blowout loss to Maryland a couple weeks ago. The Hawks still had to play #2 Indiana at home, then would face the Big Ten’s best at the Big Ten Tournament.

Instead of dwelling on the loss, Iowa beat an Indiana team that hadn’t been beaten when fully healthy. Iowa then avenged its loss to Maryland in the semifinal in its best game of the season. And then Iowa took Ohio State to the woodshed on Championship Sunday.

The Iowa coaches and players deserve significant credit for that response and the run they went on to secure a second consecutive Big Ten Tournament title for the first time in program history.

That first half was as close to perfection as Iowa may ever get. Offensively, Iowa was getting anything it wanted. Clark was on fire. The Hawkeyes were hitting every lob pass to Czinano in the post. Iowa’s wings were getting to the basket. On top of it all, the Hawks dominated the Buckeyes in transition.

But Iowa also did well defensively and on the glass. The Hawks forced Ohio State into a bunch of long jumpers that the Buckeyes didn’t have the legs to hit consistently. Iowa also secured most of the rebounds on those missed shots, then got out in transition.

That was a very good Ohio State team that Iowa was playing. The Buckeyes had Jacy Sheldon back and had just upset #2 Indiana. And Iowa destroyed them.

Coming into the game, ESPN had Iowa projected as the 5th overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa was just behind Stanford (3rd overall) and ACC Tournament champion Virginia Tech (4th overall).

It’s entirely possible ESPN was incorrect about that positioning. Stanford struggled in the last week plus of the season, losing at Utah, then losing in the PAC 12 Tournament semifinal to UCLA. Virginia Tech had a weak non-conference schedule and didn’t beat a team ranked higher than 13th in the AP Poll en route to its ACC Tournament Title.

But even if ESPN is right, Iowa just played its most impressive game of the year against a possible 2- or 3-seed in Ohio State. And that’s after Iowa also beat projected 1-seed Indiana and projected 2-seed Maryland in the past eight days.

This Committee sometimes seems to value what a team has done lately, and Iowa has three of the best wins in the country heading into the NCAA Tournament.

Iowa now has a week to rest and recharge before it learns its NCAA Tournament future. The women’s basketball Selection Show will begin at 7 PM CT on Sunday, March 12th on ESPN.

We'll know sometime Sunday night when Iowa’s first- and (potential) second-round games will be. Last year it took some time for that information to be released, though, so be prepared to be patient.

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