IOWA CITY — Caitlin Clark registered her 16th career triple-double (and fifth of the season) with 24 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists as No. 4 Iowa outpaced visiting Illinois, 101-85, at a sold-out Carver Hawkeye Arena. Iowa led by double digits for the last 32:57 minutes of the game, even as Clark shot 6-for-18 from the field (5-for-14 from deep).
Sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke added 20 points and nine rebounds in the victory, and Iowa also got a welcome 17 points and five assists from Molly Davis as the senior guard works her way back from an extended illness that limited her effectiveness over the last four games. Illinois guard Makira Cook led all scorers with 26 points in a losing effort.
The Deep Three
1. A blueprint is only as good as your resources. After Iowa's loss at Indiana, much was made about "the blueprint" for beating Iowa — mostly a combination of Clark's poor shooting from deep (3-of-16 against the Hoosiers) and limiting Iowa's effectiveness in the post and in transition.
Sunday, Illinois went all-in on denying dribble drives, hounding Clark on the perimeter and forcing her teammates to make the most of the open shots left by the attention Clark gathered.
"When Caitlin's having a little bit of an 'off night,' shooting 47%* and getting a triple-double? Are you kidding?" head coach Bluder asked rhetorically after the game. "That's amazing. She has 15 rebounds and 10 assists. But I just love that other people stepped up tonight and took responsibility for those shots. And I love the balance that we had."
*Bluder was citing effective field goal percentage, which was buoyed by Clark's five three-pointers. Clark's raw shooting percentage was 33%, with 14 of her 18 shots coming behind the arc.
Illinois' plan worked — well, "worked;" Iowa was not seriously threatened by the Illini at any point in the last three quarters. But it worked enough to frustrate Clark, who finished the game shooting 6-of-18 (5-of-14 from three) and took a timeout to unload her frustrations on the chair next to her, pounding it several times.
"Sometimes, you've just gotta let it out and regroup," Clark said with a smile. "[I was] just missing shots that I make. Obviously I didn't shoot great, but still, it wasn't terrible. And that's the biggest thing for me, being able to forget that, move on, be able to do other things for my team."
Clark did that in spades, finishing with her fifth triple-double of the season.
"Some nights are great, some nights are not great, some nights are mediocre, and that's just kind of what happens," Clark said with a level of pragmatism that would delight Iowa's football coaches. "But being able to rebound the ball and push, but also get my teammates open, is what's going to set me and this team apart."
An underrated aspect of Clark's game, which doesn't always come through on television, is her ability to work through contact. Illinois' perimeter defenders had their hands full with Clark — often literally, with handfuls of her jersey, whether Clark had the ball or not. Clark drew eight of the 17 fouls Illinois was called for Sunday, and it really could have been more.
"It is what it is," Clark said. "At this point in my career, I should know that I'm gonna get touched, I'm gonna get held, I'm gonna get hit. It wouldn't really be a very fun basketball game if they call that every single time. I probably wouldn't enjoy that, nobody else would enjoy that, and the fans wouldn't enjoy that. So you've just got to play through it."
In that sense, then, Illinois tried its damnedest to do what Indiana did to Iowa. And the Illini were still simply never close. Call the IU win a "blueprint," but games still aren't won or lost on paper — no matter what color the paper is.
2. It's time to fear the headband again. Officially, Molly Davis didn't miss any games with the illness that evidently plagued her over the previous four contests; she even started all four. She also scored a combined nine points over 56 total minutes on the court in that span.
Probably not coincidentally, Iowa went 2-2 in those four games, effectively tanking its shot at a Big Ten regular-season championship as Ohio State continues to cruise.
Davis finally looked like her old self Sunday, bedeviling Illinois' defenders with 17 points and five assists, including a 3-for-6 shooting performance from deep.
"This is the Molly that we know," Clark said. "And this is exactly how she was playing before she got a little sick. Just getting her feet back under her and getting the reps again, getting back in shape, I think was the biggest thing, but she's capable of having these type of performances every single night."
In fact, Davis made that impact felt on offense...
...defense...
...and in turning defense into transition offense.
On Sunday and as with the rest of the season, stats barely tell the story of Davis' play, which is equal parts cerebral and frenetic when she's at her best. She's a highlight reel machine on par with just about anyone on the team who doesn't wear #22, and her moxie makes her both a fan and teammate favorite.
Illness is what it is, and fortunately for Davis Iowa doesn't look like it'll have to contend with that for the rest of her season. But it does underscore, well, Point #3.
3. Basketball is still a team sport. It's easy to get caught up in ascribing team success to its best players, and that phenomenon certainly didn't start with Clark or the Hawkeyes. So while Clark is obviously the most important player on the team, she's not the only important player, and as such Iowa's success depends on more than just her.
Sunday, Iowa got assists from six players in the first quarter alone, and five players finished with at least three assists (led by Clark's 10, naturally). "Hockey assists" — the passes before the pass that leads to the bucket — aren't an officially kept stat, but Iowa used cross-court "hockey assists" to perfection, finding open shooters in rhythm.
"They just collapsed on every single drive," Clark said. "t was kind of like they were gonna live with [allowing open threes] and make us prove ourselves from the outside. And I thought that's what exactly what we did. Kylie [Feuerbach] and Taylor [McCabe] come off the bench and both make threes. Molly was great, Kate was great."
READ MORE: Iowa WBB's X-Factor: Offense From the Fourth and Fifth Options
Iowa's rotation is still plagued by inconsistent play, especially from its backups; Bluder cited the bigs' inconsistency as an ongoing issue.
"Be consistently good, be consistently bad, but just be something," Bluder said rhetorically after Addison O'Grady, Sharon Goodman and AJ Ediger combined for less than 10 minutes of play Sunday, backing up Stuelke.
O'Grady was the only one of the three to score or even attempt a shot Sunday, going 1-of-3 from the field. Goodman had a block during her four minutes of play, but she also committed two turnovers and finished with a -10 plus-minus for the game, easily the lowest on the team Sunday.
"Right now, it's like we're almost gambling on who to put in between the three of them," Bluder said. "And that's hard. It really is, it makes indecision and it doesn't give you enough reps with that person. And so that's the one thing that I think that we're still battling with."
Unfortunately, Bluder may be speaking too soon on that "the one thing" talk, as another roster issue may be looming as the season kicks into its highest gear.
Starting guard Gabbie Marshall left the game to an apparent leg injury in the second half, so pending news from team doctors, Iowa may have a backcourt rotation conundrum on its hands for the indefinite future as well. Bluder didn't have any specifics on Marshall's condition when asked (off-camera) after the postgame press conference, except to say that Marshall's injury "didn't look good."
Marshall has started all 27 games she's played in this season (missing the Loyola game to illness in December) and remains a defensive stalwart, even as her deep shot has once again grown cold, so Bluder's likely not looking forward to having to plan around any absence from Marshall.
Sydney Affolter (eight points, five assists, four assists on Sunday) and Feuerbach (nine points, 3-for-5 from deep Sunday) are the first players in line for Marshall's minutes, but neither is an apple-to-apple replacement for Marshall's skill set; Iowa will just look different if Marshall can't go.
Iowa's last true road game of the season is next, as the Hawkeyes travel to Minnesota (15-12, 5-11 conference) on Wednesday, February 28. That game tips off at 6 CT on the Peacock streaming platform.
