Iowa Women’s Basketball Musings Following Loss to UConn

The ninth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes (5-2) lost to number three UConn Sunday afternoon by a score of 86-79. Iowa led for a decent portion of the game, only to fall to the powerhouse Huskies. Caitlin Clark scored 25 points, grabbed 7 rebounds, and doled out 6 assists. Monika Czinano was held far below her season average of 17.3 points; she had 8 on the day. Kate Martin had a career best 20 points. She was on fire from deep. She was 6 for 6 from beyond the arc. McKenna Warnock totaled 14 points and Gabbie Marshall ended up with 10. The tale of the tape was rebounding. The Hawkeyes were outrebounded 44 to 28. Iowa is good enough to win the B1G this year (this is no surprise as the Hawks won both the B1G regular season as well as the B1G tournament last year). Big Picture? The Hawkeyes must continue to work on their defense and rebounding in order to advance late in March. This team will be able to put points on the board. Three point shots won’t always drop, but this team can also score in the paint off of the drive or the post up, and they are annually one of the best free throw shooting teams in the country. In this contest the Hawkeyes showed the country and themselves that they can play with anyone in the country. Consistency will be the name of the game going forward. Coach Lisa Bluder is still working on her lineups and rotations. The Hawks need to develop post depth and get freshman Hannah Stuelke up to the speed of the college game.

Next up: NC State and Wisconsin

The Hawkeyes face eleventh-ranked NC State this Thursday, Dec 1st at Carver Hawkeye Arena. The game will be at 7:30pm and can be seen on ESPN2. It will also be on the Hawkeye Radio Network.

NC State comes into the game with a record of 6-1. The Wolfpack’s only loss was against the mutual opponent UConn Huskies. The Huskies beat NC State by a score of 91-69. NC State’s best player is 5’5” guard Diamond Johnson. She is averaging 13.6 points on the year. Johnson is shooting a blistering 53% from three (21/40).

Jada Boyd, 6’2” forward, is averaging 10.7 points, and 6’0” wing Jakia Brown-Turner is averaging 10.3 points. The Wolfpack is averaging 20 rebounds more than their opponents this year. This will be a great challenge for the Hawks to get straight before the conference games begin this Sunday in a 1pm game against Wisconsin which will be televised on B1G+.

Miscellaneous Hawk Items:

• Caitlin Clark already sits in sixth place all-time scoring for the Hawks with 1849 points. She is chasing the GOAT Megan Gustafson who scored 2804 while at Iowa
• Clark is 3rd nationally averaging 26.7 points per game
• The Hawkeyes are shooting 34% from 3 points and 73% from the free throw line
• Freshman Hannah Stuelke is averaging 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds
• Monika Czinano is averaging 7.0 rebounds. She has increased her rebounding averaging every year. She averaged 1.0 in 2018-19, 5.0 in 2019-20, 6.1 in 2020-21, and is averaging 7.0 so far in 2022-23