IOWA CITY — Southeastern Louisiana has played some of the best teams in the country, including road games at 2-seed Utah and 3-seed LSU in November, and at 10-seed Alabama in late December. Utah and LSU in particular have some of the best players in the country in Alissa Pili and Angel Reese.

But after Iowa's 95-43 victory on Friday, SELA head coach Ayla Guzzardo admitted the Caitlin Clark experience was something all its own.

"We almost became fans on the sideline," Guzzardo said. "What she can do has just been amazing. LSU has more bigs with Angel Reese, same with Utah and their bigs, but as far as the guard spot we haven't seen anything like [Clark].”

In a game Iowa was expected to win big, Clark came out and made sure of it early. Clark hit her first four shots from the field, including two threes, as Iowa built a double-digit lead and maintained it through the last three quarters of the game. Clark ultimately fell short of her tenth career triple-double (26 points, 12 assists, 7 rebounds), mainly because Iowa didn’t need her to do more.

While Iowa’s offense was firing on all cylinders, Southeastern Louisiana was still in the game thanks to some quality offense of its own. Iowa started the game in its player-to-player defense and it largely forced the Lions into two-point jumpers in the first quarter — which they hit with surprising efficiency in the early going.

Midway through the second quarter, Iowa’s lead was still hovering around 10-12 points. Iowa clearly had the advantage, but couldn’t build the margin large enough to truly feel comfortable.

That all changed in the second quarter, when Iowa switched to its 2-3 zone and forced the Lions into unfamiliar territory offensively.

“Great game plan, because we don't shoot the three-ball well," Guzzardo said. "In our league, we're making four threes, it's a good game for us. We can't make four threes going against Iowa.”

Iowa closed the quarter on the big run it had spent the first half searching for, and led 54-32 at halftime. And once the zone's clamps were on, the game was effectively over: in the second half, the Hawks surrendered just 11 points total, including 2 in the fourth quarter.

The sold-out Iowa crowd lived up to the moment, and the Lions took notice. “I think it was a cool experience, something we've never experienced before,” said SELA guard Hailey Giarantano.

Teammate Jalencia Pierre agreed. “It was nice," Pierre said. "We had to learn how to communicate with each other, but it was nice having a big crowd.”

“They’re being modest," said Guzzardo, addressing her players' comments. "This is why we play and coach the sport. What they brought to women's basketball is awesome. 14,000 [fans] is loud. It's tough to call plays, and tough to hear anything, and tough to hear the refs call fouls. It's a great atmosphere and something they will remember forever.”

Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder reflected on her time as an athlete at Northern Iowa and how it compared to the crowds Iowa sees now. “I don't know how many the [UNI-Dome] seats, but we'd have maybe 200 people there if we were lucky," Bluder said. "So to see where it's come, it's just so rewarding."

Bluder continued: "Now when you have a player like Caitlin that's so exciting, and a team that plays the style that we do and to be able to sell this arena out in an hour — when we came here, we had dreamed about that. You never know if it's going to happen, and now it's happened. So I love my days back at UNI but to play in front of this crowd, I love it.”

In the NCAA Tournament, scouting for the next round has to begin before the game is won — and Iowa's next opponent looks to present a different type of challenge than SELA. “They've got some really good rebounders on the Georgia team, so we've got to make contact and box out because they are exceptional offensive rebounders," Bluder said.

Rebounding was top of mind for good reason. Georgia’s 37.3% offensive rebounding rate is 28th best nationally. Generally Iowa has been outstanding at defensive rebounding this year—Iowa’s defensive rebounding rate ranks 5th nationally—but the Hawkeyes also haven’t faced many offensive rebounding teams as good as Georgia.

The Hawkeyes will meet again early Saturday to practice for Georgia, and with modern scouting and video capabilities, the players can begin working individually on their preparation as early as tonight.

Iowa will face Georgia at 2 PM CT on Sunday on ABC. Nobody on the team mentioned Creighton or last season's second-round exit from the tournament after Friday's game, but it's safe to assume that as the Hawkeyes prepare for Sunday, they don't need to be reminded of how dangerous a 10-seed can be.