DES MOINES — Caitlin Clark scored 38 points in a homecoming for the ages as No. 4 Iowa dominated visitor Cleveland State 104-75 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The women's win was the second half of the Hawkeye Showcase, after the men throttled FAMU 88-52.
"It was a great atmosphere — it felt a little bit like a tournament atmosphere," Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said after the game. "I thought we did a nice job putting on a good show."
"It was really special," Clark said. "This was probably the game that was circled on the calendar for myself. Just really excited to come back here."
Kate Martin filled the stat sheet with 15 points, six rebounds, and five assists in the winning effort, and Hannah Stuelke added her second career double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds off the bench.
The Deep Three
1. Welcome home, Caitlin. West Des Moines native Caitlin Clark understood the assignment stepping onto her hometown(-ish) court, hitting a three-pointer on the first possession of the game and only relenting when Bluder took her out of the game with 5:27 left (permanently, this time).
All told, Clark hit nine of her 16 three-point attempts, including all three tries in the fourth quarter before exiting.
"My shot felt good," Clark said, understating the obvious. "I thought we did a really good job of getting the ball into the high post, and then our shooters being able to spot up and get good looks. Honestly, I know I made nine, but I felt like a couple more could have dropped."
Clark's 38-point performance moved her into 9th place all-time on the NCAA's career scoring list, ahead of former Iowa State great Ashley Joens. Clark is now 19 points clear of the Cyclone star with 3,079 points. Up next: Rachel Banham of Minnesota, who sits in eighth place all-time at 3,093 points. The records will continue to fall quickly, too; with just 44 more points Clark will move into the top five all-time, also passing the great Lori Baumann of Drake in the process.
"There's three Iowa girls in the top 10 list, and I think it speaks to women's basketball in this state," Clark said after the game. "Not only recently, but the history of it. Whether it's back to the six-on-six days, or whether it's currently, there's just so many talented players. Ashley was one of them; we had our hands full when we would go up against her at Iowa State."
2. Tonight's dinner special: the zone defense. Cleveland State, boasting one of the stingiest defenses Iowa will face in non-conference play, threw zone pressure at the Hawkeyes all game long, forcing quick passes and shots in small windows.
The gambit didn't quite pay off; Iowa's 104 points were the Hawkeyes' second-highest of the season.
"Our offensive rebounding was just outstanding," Bluder said. "I'm very happy with the way we dissected the zone. I thought we did a really good job of hitting cutters and making high-percentage shots. I mean, we had 44 paint points against a zone defense. That's kinda hard to do."
Indeed, the dominant performance started on the glass, as Iowa out-rebounded the Vikings 49-21. Stuelke collected six offensive rebounds (13 total) in the victorious effort, and drew five fouls while only committing one.
"It just kind of comes to me," Stuelke said of her rebounding production. "The ball was bouncing in my favor tonight."
Even with a superlative shooting performance from deep — the Vikings were 10-of-17 from behind the arc — and a feisty defense that forced 17 turnovers (including 12 steals), missing a player like Leo meant Cleveland State's lift was simply too great, even for a team currently slotted as a 12-seed in ESPN's Bracketology.
"Their best player is out, another player out, and that changes things," Bluder said. "Injuries change a team, changes the complexion of a season. We thought it was probably going to be a bit tougher with those players healthy."
3. Iowa's outside shooting is still inconsistent. Iowa's team three-pointing for the day was an innocuous (if not exactly great) 10-for-31, or 32.3%. That's fine, obviously, but remember that Clark was 9-for-16 by herself from deep.
This isn't math class, so we'll do the arithmetic for you: that's 1-for-15 for the rest of the team combined, including 0-for-6 for Gabbie Marshall, who's mired in an early-season slump for the second-straight year.
There won't be many days when Marshall and fellow sharpshooter Taylor McCabe combine to go 0-for-10 from deep, and it speaks to the level of domination the Hawkeyes had everywhere else on the floor that the chilly shooting didn't put the game in any doubt.
Shooting slumps are like losing streaks and Draymond Green's suspension: indefinite. They go until they don't. It's unlikely that the team (outside of Clark) continues to struggle en masse into the thick of the Big Ten race, especially without something evident to fix, but fans and players alike are more than ready to see those shots start to fall — even as opponents dread the thought.
After all, if the biggest gripe in a December win over a likely tournament-bound foe is "the deep shots weren't falling," things are in good shape.
Iowa's next action is against Loyola-Chicago on Thursday, December 21, back at home at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. That game tips off at 5 pm CT, with TV coverage from BTN+ ($).
