Historical precedent was defied as the No. 6 Iowa Hawkeyes conquered their Big Ten rival, the No. 8 Maryland Terrapins, at home for their seventh consecutive win as the conclusion of the regular season rapidly approaches and conference play remains competitive. Since joining the Big Ten, the Terps had held the advantage and many anticipated that this game would be competitive and down to the wire.
From the start, the Hawkeyes were off to the races. They crashed the boards on defense, got back in transition smoothly, and jumped out to a quick 7-2 lead within the first four minutes of the first quarter. All seven of those points were scored by Caitlin Clark.
Given the stakes of this game, the Hawkeyes came out wanting something versus protecting something.
Coach Lisa Bluder quickly went to her bench and brought in major contributors Hannah Stuelke and Molly Davis to provide assistance. Davis came in to provide relief for McKenna Warnock who was taking as much time as she could to adjust in her first game back from a rib injury.
The Terp defense immediately went into double-teaming Clark as much as it could to neutralize her obvious offensive prowess and possibly force some turnovers. At first, Maryland’s strategy wasn’t working even as it was making some inroads with a couple baskets here and there.
With 4:11 left in the first, the Hawkeyes led 13-8.
Iowa continued to surge on and at the 3:19 mark Stuelke got the crowd into a state of unbridled exuberance as she concluded a 6-0 run with an open fast-break layup off a feed from Clark to put the Hawkeyes up by double digits at 19-8.
Simply put, the Hawkeyes were playing some tremendous basketball against a high-caliber opponent that had given them grief in the past. As the quarter started to come to a close, they were in total command and playing with an abundance of energy. Furthermore, Maryland’s top player, Diamond Miller, was already in a precarious position with two fouls.
The Hawkeyes led 29-18 at the end of the first. Clark had 11 points, three rebounds, and two assists. Monika Czinano had six points and two rebounds.
The question going into the second quarter was whether Iowa would stay hot or would significantly cool down, thereby allowing the Terps to come back.
At the 8:46 mark of the second, Clark made sure that wouldn’t be the case as she was able to hit her trademark 3-pointer from the logo and draw the fall. She followed through with the extra point, increasing the Iowa…
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