It wasn’t the prettiest win by any stretch, but the Iowa Women’s basketball team outlasted the Northern Iowa Panthers by a final score of 88-74 to finish off a sweep of the three in-state rivals.

The Hawkeyes wanted to shoot better, they wanted to rebound better, and they didn’t defend the way they wanted to in the first half, but at the end of the day they were happy that they came away with a victory.

“You’re going to have games where it’s a little bleh,” said Caitlin Clark. “It’s great that we gutted out a win. We won by 14 points. That’s great when we would say we didn’t play well, didn’t shoot the ball well.”

“I thought that our game today was okay, it wasn’t our best performance of the year,” said Coach Lisa Bluder. “We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we’re capable of except from the free throw line. When your shots not falling, it’s a great thing to do.”

That’s where the game was won today. At the free throw line. The Hawkeyes got the Panthers into foul trouble and then converted 28 of their 31 (90.3%) chances from the charity stripe. They were amongst the top in the country last year in free throw percentage, but coming into today they were sitting in 82nd place in the country at 73.8%.

“Maybe this will get us on the right track,” said Bluder. “We shoot free throws really well in practice and we are a good free throw shooting team. It was weird to me that we weren’t shooting them very well.”

Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano combined to go 23/25 from the free throw line. Clark in particular did not have her best shooting night, going just 6/17, but she was able to contribute from the line when the team needed it.

“I’ve had to learn over the years, you’re not going to shoot the ball the way you want to every single game,” said Clark. “Pushing, getting to the rim in transition…Me and Monika did a really good job of getting there when we didn’t really shoot our best. We’re able to get points for our team at the line.”

Early in the second quarter, Northern Iowa had a 25-20 lead, but back-to-back three point makes from Gabbie Marshall and Molly Davis capped an 11-0 Iowa run to give the Hawkeyes a six-point lead. Gabbie Marshall knocked down another three pointer late in the half and Iowa took a 46-39 lead into the halftime break.

In the third quarter, Iowa was able to extend their lead, doing much of it from the free throw line. They were 13/14 in the quarter, while four points from Hannah Stuelke in the final minute of the quarter gave the Hawkeyes a 69-56 advantage going into the fourth.

Still, that lead didn’t feel comfortable and Tanya Warren’s squad opened the final frame with a 10-2 run to whittle the lead down to 71-66. Iowa punched back and got some big buckets from Monika Czinano and Caitlin Clark down the stretch. It was the Hawkeyes with the final push, a 15-6 run to put the game away.

The Iowa defense struggled at times in the first half, but was able to turn 20 Panthers turnovers into 26 points. That coupled with foul trouble is what did Northern Iowa in. Guards Maya McDermott and Kam Finley combined for 19 points in the first half, but mustered just six points on 2/10 shooting in the second half.

“I thought we did a good job creating turnovers. I thought our zone defense was very good,” said Bluder. “I think they were two of 19 from the field in the second half against our zone defense…I thought we did a really job on both McDermott and Finley in the second half…I’m not happy with the way we boxed out, we didn’t box out very well, but I’m going to be happy that we’re state champs.”

That they are, the Hawkeyes swept the three in-state schools defeating Drake, Iowa State and Northern Iowa. A feat that was not easy and something that the team values.

“We’ve been tested in all three games we’ve played (against in-state schools). We’ve really been challenged,” said Caitlin Clark. “That’s credit to our coaches. We don’t have to play UNI, Drake or Iowa State, but we want to. We want competition and I think the competition in our state is probably the best around the country.”

Looking at the final stats, while the Hawkeyes shot just 27/62 (43.5%) from the floor, they turned it over just 11 times to the Panthers 20 turnovers. Caitlin Clark finished with 26 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, while Monika Czinano finished with 22 points and six rebounds. Warnock, Martin and Marshall combined for 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Sydney Affolter also contributed 16 solid minutes off the bench, something that Lisa Bluder noted in the press conference.

“I thought Syd did a really good job today. Kate was in foul trouble, Syd came in, guarded really hard, did a lot of really good things. Her plus minutes was 13, which was fourth highest on the team. I thought she really gave us good minutes off the bench.”

Up next for the Hawkeyes is their final matchup in non-conference play. It’s a 2:00pm mid-day contest on December 21st against the Ivy League Darmouth Big Green. They come into the game with a 2-10 record. The game will be streamed on BTN+.