As a top five basketball team in the country, you are like a deer on the first day of hunting season. You’ve got a red dot on your back.
If the deer lets the red dot zero in on it, it gets shot.
As a basketball team, if you let the underdog hang around and hang around, the metaphorical red dot can become an L in the win-loss column.
Sunday, Iowa escaped in overtime at Drake, but they did not have the same fortune tonight, as the Kansas State Wildcats knocked off the #4 Hawkeyes 84-83 at Bramlage Coliseum.
“I thought we learned some lessons from the Drake game, but we really didn’t come out and do a good job of putting those lessons in order,” said Head Coach Lisa Bluder. “It’s one game, but at the same time, what’s it going to take to do a better job crashing (the boards), or a better job running our offense.”
The Hawkeyes offense stalled out in the late game possessions that mattered most, while the defense got whistled for eight fouls on the last 12 KSU possessions.
Iowa got out to a 14-7 lead in the opening quarter, but the Wildcats were able to close the gap to 21-19 at the end of the frame thanks to several driving layups from Serena Sundell. That became the theme of the night. Every time Iowa got the lead up near ten points, Kansas State had an answer.
In the second quarter, Gabbie Marshall knocked down an open 3pt look to push the Iowa lead to 29-22. However, a Serena Sundell three, followed by a Gabby Gregory three-point play cut it to 29-28. Later, an 11-0 Iowa run capped by a pair of Caitlin Clark free throws gave the Hawks their largest lead of the game at 40-28. You can probably see where this is going though, a couple of 3pt makes and a Gabby Gregory layup forced Lisa Bluder to take a timeout with the score at 40-38.
“We had some untimely turnovers that resulted in points (when up by several scores),” said Bluder. “They got 22 points off of our turnovers. That’s all, they made us pay. We had some good leads, but we just didn’t finish.”
Iowa carried a 47-43 lead into the half, but Kansas State continued to just hang around and keep things close into the second half.
Hannah Stuelke’s first 3pt make of the season sparked a 7-0 Hawkeyes run to put them up 63-56 and they were able to carry a 68-63 lead into the final quarter. Midway through the fourth quarter, Iowa had their best chance to take control up 76-69, but Iowa scored on just one of their next four possessions.
With under 3:30 to play, Sarah Shematsi hit a career-high sixth three-pointer and Jaelyn Glenn followed it up with a steal and score to tie the game at 78. The sizeable KSU student section leftover from the men’s game was going crazy and it had that feel like the Hawkeyes weren’t going to escape unscathed.
“I think she’d hit one three on the year and she was six of ten from three-point range. That was a difference maker,” said Bluder on Shematsi’s performance from deep.
Caitlin Clark silenced the crowd with a step back 3pt make, but Gabby Gregory got to the line to cut it to 81-80. And then she got to the line again to give the ‘Cats an 82-81 lead. Monika Czinano answered with a basket, but Gabby Gregory had a knack for getting to the free throw line in the final couple of minutes. Another free throw tied the game, and a poor Iowa possession gave Kansas State a chance to take the lead and another chance for Gabby Gregory. She got to the foul line for the fourth time in the final 1:09 and put the Wildcats up 84-83 with 3.8 to play.
“Gregory drawing 13 fouls is just an amazing number,” said Bluder. “She just kept going to the free throw line, kept going to the free throw line…we were getting to the line in the first half, they got to the free throw line in the second half.”
The Hawkeyes final possession started out poorly with Caitlin Clark getting knocked to the floor. Eventually the ball found its way to Monika Czinano in the post, but it was too late. The shot attempt and potential foul call came after the final buzzer and the Wildcats went running to the student section to celebrate.
Sure, there were some questionable and probably wrong calls down the stretch, but the Hawkeyes had chances to take control of the game several times. They didn’t do it and that’s not on the officiating.
“I think it was a lack of patience. Lack of running our offense and wanting to do one on one all the time,” said Lisa Bluder on the offensive struggles late. “We’re a team that usually likes to drive in order to pitch (for a 3) and we’re driving to create for ourselves and that’s not a good thing for us.”
The offensive rebounding that came up clutch in the second half against Drake was nonexistent tonight. The Hawkeyes grabbed just four of 30 (13.3%) available offensive rebounds. Kansas State, however, took advantage of what Iowa gave them. They turned eight offensive rebounds into seven points and 13 Iowa turnovers into 22 points. That was the difference in the game.
Serena Sundell and Gabby Gregory each finished with 24 points for the Wildcats, while Sarah Shematsi had all 18 points from behind the arc. Caitlin Clark finished with 27 points and 7 rebounds, while Monika Czinano had 18 points and McKenna Warnock had 12.
“We’re going to get everybody’s best shot. We better get used to it,” said Bluder. “I think they (Kansas State) were really excited to play us…We’ve got to start understanding that we’re marked, and we are going to have to bring that kind of emotion to every single game.”
The question that will not be answered until Sunday is the status of Caitlin Clark. She appeared to turn her ankle on the final possession, the same ankle she injured against Southern and was helped off the floor. She walked to the locker room after the game on her own, but with a noticeable limp. Coach Lisa Bluder did not know the status of her point guard at the time of the postgame press conference.
The Hawkeyes will return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday, and it is another upset minded team on the docket. The Belmont Bruins nearly pulled two upsets in last year’s NCAA Tournament and already took #5 Louisville to the wire this season. The game is at 2:00pm and will be streamed on BTN+.
