Kate Martin has been battered and bruised throughout her career at Iowa. She missed a season with a torn ACL, she’s had her nose broken twice and she even tweaked her ankle trying to give someone a hug after Wednesday’s win against Iowa State. She’s always getting right back up and battling again. That’s why when she didn’t get up right away tonight, her coaches, teammates and everyone else at Carver-Hawkeye Arena knew something wasn’t right.
“She’s one of the toughest people I know, so when Kate goes down, you’re like okay something is actually wrong,” said Monika Czinano.
With just under seven and a half minutes left in the third quarter, Martin drove the baseline and crashed into Minnesota forward Alanna Micheaux. Lisa Bluder and the Iowa training staff quickly gathered around her on the floor. The trainers eventually helped Kate, who was in tears, to the locker room.
“She indicated that it was her shin right away and so I was concerned that it broke,” said Bluder. “They did an initial x-ray here. It looks like a deep bone bruise, but we’re going to get a real x-ray over at the hospital tomorrow…I’m going to pray tonight that there’s no broken bones and that this initial x-ray is accurate.”
The injury to Kate overshadows several other things that happened during the night, the first being that the Hawkeyes took care of business against the Gophers. They held talented true freshman Mara Braun to 5/16 shooting on the night and picked up an 87-64 win. It’s their eighth straight win against the rivals from up north.
“She’s a really good player and doesn’t back down from anybody and I just though Syd (Affolter) went in and did a very good job on her,” said Bluder. “We were trying the whole game to keep the ball out of her hands…I think we frustrated her a little bit.”
Minnesota is a young team filled with talent and they got the Iowa lead as low as 11 late in the third quarter, but the Hawkeyes veteran roster held them to just 1/13 shooting the fourth quarter, which allowed them to put the game away. The Gophers had struggled with turnovers against the tougher teams on their schedule and tonight, the Hawkeyes forced 17 turnovers and turned it into 26 points.
Caitlin Clark nearly had a triple-double, but settled for a 32 point, 10 rebound and 9 assist double-double performance. Monika Czinano added 22 points on 11/17 shooting, but her big moment of the night was when she checked into the game after a quick break in the first quarter to see her sister Maggie Czinano on the floor for the Gophers. It was her first time going against her younger sister.
“It was a lot of fun. I blocked her one time, and, in my mind, I was like, ‘I cannot wait to bring that up later,’” said Czinano. “After the game we talked, and she was like ‘it should have been a foul’. We still have that rivalry going, but it’s been both of our dreams to play on a stage like this for so long. It’s really special.”
McKenna Warnock reached a milestone in her career, as her five points in the first quarter put her over 1,000 points for her career. She finished the game with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
McKenna wasn’t the only one with a milestone. With the win, Lisa Bluder passed former Iowa and Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer for most regular season Big Ten wins with 234. Bluder noted in the press conference that she learned a lot from the former Hawkeye coach.
“The only thing that’s odd about it to me is that C. Vivian Stringer had it. As a young coach at St. Ambrose, I’d come over and work her camps and I’d sneak into her practices and pick her ear,” said Bluder. “I have so much respect for Vivian Stringer and that’s the only kind of weird thing about it.”
“She cares about us more as people than basketball players and I promise you it’s not like that everywhere,” said Caitlin Clark talking about her head coach. “We’re like a family. We know there’s way more important things in life than putting a ball through the hoop. We love to win, but at the end of the day, there’s a lot more important things in life and she knows that.”
Up next for the Hawkeyes is finals week. The end of the fall semester wraps up next week and all of the players will finish up their fall classes before they hit the floor for another game. Their next game comes on Sunday December 18th against Northern Iowa and Iowa will be looking to make a clean sweep against the three in-state rivals. The game is at 2:00pm and will be streamed on BTN+.
