Winning the Battle: Iowa Defeats Georgia, 74-66

IOWA CITY — At 11 am, the parking lots around Carver-Hawkeye Arena were already filling in. By half past noon, the line at each door of the south entrance was at least 100 deep. The game didn’t start until 2 pm.

That’s the excitement this Iowa women’s basketball team has brought to Iowa City this season.

Some came to see the magnetic talent and charisma of Caitlin Clark, who continues to change basketball before our eyes. At most games, you see little girls with signs saying their families drove hundreds of miles just to see her play. They come for the logo threes, the jaw-dropping passes, and every bit of brilliance in between.

Clark’s talent is earned, not given. On this day, she’s the first Hawkeye on the floor for warmups, nearly 78 minutes before tip.

But they also came for Monika Czinano. The fifth-year senior is one of the best finishers in women’s basketball history. And her connection with Clark is near telepathic. Many times they don’t have to look to know where the other will be.

And they came for the other Hawkeyes players too. Kate Martin is praised by her teammates and coaches as a great leader. In some of Iowa’s toughest games this year she has shined her brightest.

Gabbie Marshall has completed one of the more remarkable turnarounds within a season in program history. For much of the year she struggled with her shooting. Teams were starting to leave her open from three to devote more resources to Clark and Czinano. Then in the Big Ten Tournament she caught fire from three. Marshall’s shooting was one of the biggest factors in Iowa’s semifinal win over Maryland. Her hot shooting gives Iowa an additional scoring threat it hasn’t had for much of the year.

And then there’s McKenna Warnock. At times, it feels like Warnock is Iowa’s forgotten starter, which is strange because she’s averaged at least 10.9 points and 6.1 rebounds each of the last three seasons, while shooting greater than 40% from three for her career.

Others came to see consistent excellence. With a victory over Georgia, Iowa would advance to its third Sweet Sixteen in 5 years. It would’ve been favored to make a fourth if the Tournament hadn’t been cancelled in 2020. By comparison, the men's program hasn’t made a Sweet Sixteen in the 21st century.

Still others came for the spectacle. Carver has become one of the loudest* arenas for women’s games. The Hawks play an exciting, up-tempo brand of basketball. They’ve treated fans to some exciting moments this year, including a thrilling game-winner over the #2 team in the country. What would Iowa do in its last game at Carver, with the season on the line?

*ESPN's Christy Winters Scott would later announce during Sunday's game that the volume had registered at 119 decibels — near chainsaw levels of sound.

As the game began, Carver-Hawkeye Arena was loud, but there was a nervous energy around it too. Many fans had also been in attendance in last year's NCAA Tournament action in Iowa City, when a star-studded 2-seed Hawkeye team looked to advance to another Sweet Sixteen. The only problem was that Creighton had dreams of its own, and pulled off one of the more stunning upsets in recent women’s tourney history.

Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said that the team didn’t talk about Creighton leading up to the Georgia game.

“That was last year,” Bluder said. “It's not something that we've talked about this week. Maybe it's in the back of everybody's mind. It's not something we really brought up.”

But if Creighton wasn’t on the mind of the players and coaches, it was certainly on the mind of the fans. And Georgia came ready to repeat Creighton’s success.

Unbeknown to most outside of the Iowa locker room, Iowa would play shorthanded most of the day. Freshman forward Hannah Stuelke went down with an injury yesterday in practice.

“It literally happened in the last 3 minutes of practice yesterday,” Bluder said. "She just turned her ankle. They did treatments on it last night until late and again this morning, and I really thought she was going to be able to go today. When she came into the locker room after the first warm-up, I knew it was going to be tough for her.”

Stuelke was the Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the Year this season. Her size and athleticism would’ve helped Iowa significantly against a long and athletic Georgia team. Instead, Iowa had to manage without her.

Stuelke's absence wouldn’t be Iowa’s only loss on Sunday. Reserve guard Molly Davis went down with a leg injury in the first quarter. She briefly returned to the floor in the second half, but saw just 1:45 of game action in total.

Because of the injuries, Iowa was forced to play its starters most of the game, including a full 40 minutes for Clark; Davis, Addison O'Grady and Sydney Affolter were the only bench players Sunday, and they combined for just 9 minutes of action.

From the opening tip this game was a battle. Georgia played an aggressive 3-2 zone defense that focused on forcing turnovers. It was successful for much of the game. In the first half, Iowa turned it over 10 times, and those turnovers led to 15 Georgia points.

Iowa used a hot stretch of perimeter shooting to take a 31-21 lead, and for a moment it looked like the Hawkeyes had figured out the Bulldog zone and taken control of the game.

They hadn’t, and they didn’t.

Georgia immediately responded with a run of its own and the Bulldogs took a 35-34 lead with just over 3 minutes to play in the half.

“It was a tight ball game.” Georgia Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson said “We made runs. We went up. They cut it. They made some runs, we cut it back. It was an even game the whole game.”

And so it was for the next two quarters. Iowa battled back and led 41-40 at halftime. The Hawks extended that to six late in the third quarter and eight in the fourth, leading 64-56 with 6:49 to play and the Carver-Hawkeye crowd as electric as ever. But out of the timeout, Georgia responded again, seizing momentum back and cutting the Hawkeye lead to 68-66 with 2 minutes to play.

Iowa's defense has taken a backseat to its offensive prowess for most of the season, And yet it was the Hawkeye defense that came up strong in the end.

On its next possession up two, Iowa got the ball in deep to Czinano, but her shot rimmed out. Georgia had an opportunity to tie or take the lead, but instead Iowa forced a turnover along the sideline.

Iowa got two more good looks inside on the ensuing possession, but neither shot fell. As Georgia raced down the court, Iowa fans were on their feet yelling for a stop. But the noise wasn’t quite as loud as it had been earlier, and the anxiety lingering from last year's heartbreaker was palpable.

Fortunately for the faithful in attendance, this year no dagger three came. Iowa turned its defense up, and Georgia guard Diamond Battles dribbled into trouble. When Battles tried to pass out of it, her pass went directly to Caitlin Clark. Clark got the ball up court, then dribbled out the possession waiting to take a shot with as little time on the clock as possible.

The shot came with just over 43 seconds left.

“We went four flat,” Clark said of Iowa’s set on the play. Clark had the ball near the Tigerhawk logo and Iowa’s other four players were all aligned near the baseline. “Basically, I was going to take the girl to the hole.”

The Hawks had run a similar set earlier hoping to free Warnock or Czinano underneath.

“Last time we ran that play, McKenna was wide open for a layup underneath,” Bluder said. “It was going to be one or the other. [Caitlin] was going to get it or one of our bigs was going to get it.”

The thing about the best players is that they always want to take the big shots. The shots that their team absolutely needs them to make to win the game.

“I knew right when I got the ball that I was taking it.” Clark said after the game. Warnock and Czinano were options, but Clark knew the weight of the game was on her shoulders, and she delivered.

Clark started dribbling toward the basket and faked left. Her defender bit on the fake just enough to free space on the right. Clark attacked that space and dribbled towards the basket. A few feet away from the hoop, she pulled up and banked a shot in off the glass. Iowa led 70-66: a two-possession lead with just 43 seconds left.

But the game wasn’t over. Georgia had hit big shots all day, and it would try for one again. But again Iowa had the answer defensively. Georgia tried an entry pass to the post, but Martin got her hands up and tipped it.

At that point, Martin had been having a dreadful game. She shot just 1-4 from the floor. She had 5 turnovers against the swarming Bulldog defense. But again, Martin shone brightest when Iowa needed her.

Martin’s tip went up in the air and fell right into Czinano’s hands. The ball got over to Clark, who dribbled to the other end of the floor and called timeout with 25 seconds left.

Still, there was one last bit of drama lurking. Clark’s inbounds pass was intercepted by Battles, and she raced the other way to try to make an easy layup that could cut the Hawkeye lead back to two precarious points — and with enough time that Georgia wouldn't have to foul to get the ball back to tie or take the lead.

Marshall responded instantly to the stolen pass, hustling back on defense and getting in Battles' way to contest the shot. Battles' layup rimmed out, Warnock grabbed her eighth and final rebound of the day, and finally Iowa had the game in hand.

After the game, Bluder didn’t think that Iowa would have to play shorthanded in the Sweet Sixteen.

“I think [Stuelke] will be back though by next weekend, so I'm not worried about that,” Bluder said.

When asked if Davis’ availability would be an issue, Bluder said “I don't think so. I haven't heard anything yet, but I don't think so.”

After the game, a happy Bluder grabbed a microphone at mid-court and thanked the crowd for its contributions to the victory. Cheers could be heard from Iowa’s locker room in the media center during Georgia’s media availability.

But Iowa also knew the job wasn’t done, and its goals weren’t yet achieved.

“This wasn't our goal,” Clark said of reaching the Sweet Sixteen. “It's one of the steps to reaching our goal, but it's not the be-all, end-all to us.”

And so the Hawkeyes will head to Seattle to play in the Sweet Sixteen. They don’t know their opponent yet—either 3-seed Duke or 6-seed Colorado—but they do know they will be in for another battle. And they will be better prepared after surviving this battle with Georgia.