ALBANY — The top-seeded University of Iowa women’s basketball team led for all but 14 seconds in an 89-68 blasting of fifth-seeded Colorado on Saturday afternoon at MVP Arena. The Hawkeyes, who have advanced to their sixth Elite 8 in program history, defeated the Buffaloes in back-to-back years in the Sweet Sixteen.
All five starters finished in double figures with All-American Caitlin Clark leading the way, recording her 66th career double-double with 29 points, 15 assists and six rebounds. She was 13-of-22 from the floor with three 3-point field goals.
Junior Sydney Affolter, who has finished in double figures in five of the last six games, added 15, and sophomore Hannah Stuelke recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds – her second straight double-double. Kate Martin finished with 15 points and nine rebounds, and Gabbie Marshall went 4-for-5 from the behind the arc, finishing with 14 points.
“I’m proud of the way that we played today. I thought we played really good team basketball,” said P. Sue Beckwith, MD, Head Women’s Basketball Coach Lisa Bluder. “We got everybody involved. We had five people in double figures and did a great job on the boards. They only got four offensive rebounds in the whole second half. I’m proud of my group. Caitlin comes out and has 15 assists, only two turnovers.
“I thought there’s so many people that played well in this game. Syd Affolter has the highest plus/minus of anybody, Gabbie Marshall knocks down 3s, Kate Martin her leadership out there was unbelievable. Hannah Stuelke didn’t let their center have a single O-board. That’s hard to do. That’s really hard to do.”
The Hawkeyes got off to a hot start with a 9-3, run in the first two minutes. Iowa continued the momentum throughout the first, closing out the quarter with a 22-14 lead. Clark led the way with six points and six assists.
Martin had a quick layup to start the second followed by an and-one from Stuelke to give the Hawkeyes a 13-point lead. The Buffaloes were able to close to within eight in the second, but Iowa kept the momentum, taking a 48-35 lead into the break.
The Hawkeyes went on a 6-0 to start the second half, forcing a Colorado timeout. The Buffaloes responded with back-to-back buckets, but Iowa took control, maintaining a double digit lead throughout the half. Iowa had a 22 point advantage (69-47) heading into the fourth.
“That’s what we talked about in the locker room at halftime, is to come out and dominate that third quarter from the start and that’s exactly what we did, we forced them to use a time-out,” said Clark. “I thought we really controlled the game. Once we got that lead, we were able to sustain it. Even when they went on a few runs, we were able to switch up our player defense, our zone defense — that caused them a few problems.
“Overall I just thought we executed offensively, whether it was in zone, whether it was in man-to-man, whether it was in transition, and then we did a great job on defense. It was a complete basketball game is what it felt like.”
Iowa maintained at least a 20-point lead throughout the fourth to give the program its second straight Elite 8 appearance. The 21-point win is the largest margin of victory in a Sweet Sixteen game in program history.
