Iowa women fend off challenge from Patriot League champ Holy Cross
By Susan Harman
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Top-seeded Iowa fended off an energetic challenge from 16th-seeded Patriot League champ Holy Cross, 91-65, Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa will play West Virginia Monday for the right to go to the Sweet 16 in Albany, N.Y.
It wasn’t easy, but some of the usual suspects put together enough offense, defense and physical play to hold off the Crusaders. Caitlin Clark scored 27 points with 10 assists and eight rebounds but wasn’t all that satisfied with her play.
“I don’t know if we played our best basketball, obviously a little rust,” Clark said “I thought we could have executed our offense a little better. They really compacted (their defense) in the paint. I thought we responded well. And we missed a few shots we normally make, but overall all that matters this time of the season is that we win. One more time to play in this building, and I love this place a lot. I’ll enjoy every single second of it.”
Kate Martin had her own double-double with 15 points and 14 rebounds. Gabbie Marshall was 3-for-7 from 3-point range and finished with 11 points, while doing her usual job guarding the Crusaders’ perimeter shooters. Sydney Affolter had nine points and seven rebounds.
But here’s maybe the best news for Iowa as it tries to continue its NCAA journey: With Hannah Stuelke playing only 10 minutes because of a migraine headache, likely caused by the physical play down low, the Hawkeye reserve post players combined to make 11-of-14 shots, grab eight rebounds and score 23 points in nearly 30 minutes of play.
“A lot of people came in off the bench and played really well for us,” Martin said. “Addi (O’Grady), 7-for-9, so we were really proud of her tonight.”
This has been a sore spot with Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, who has said more than once that she needs to see more consistency out of the reserve posts, so she knows what she’s going to get when she rests Stuelke.
“That’s pretty good; that’s pretty consistent,” Bluder said of Saturday’s numbers.
“Coach J (Jan Jensen) always says we need to be ready; I think we were both ready,” O’Grady said. “Me and A.J. and Sharon (Goodman) all went in and played some good minutes.”
O’Grady scored 14 points, just two off her career high.
“My teammates found a way to get me the ball, and I was posting up strong, and they just found a way to get it to me,” O’Grady said. “I know we play a bunch of big post players in the future, so I think any touches we get is really good at this point.”
“The most important thing for (O’Grady) in this game is she got some confidence, and that’s what we need out of her,” Affolter said. “We need her for all of her minutes and to execute exactly like she did tonight for the rest of March Madness.”
Ediger scored four points, making both her shots, and grabbed three rebounds.
“The coaches always do a good job of making sure we’re in the mindset to be ready to go, and you never know when your number is going to be called,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a little hard coming out and going in, but I think they really instill confidence in us to go in and produce.”
Iowa started haltingly in the first quarter with missed shots and turnovers creating a mishmash. Trailing 11-10 with 4:38 left in the quarter a timeout came to the rescue.
“I think the first quarter kind of frustrated maybe all of us in a way,” Clark said.
Iowa scored the next 10 points, none of them by Clark who was on the bench for awhile. Kylie Feuerbach made a free throw, Martin hit a three and O’Grady scored on a layup and a fast break. Martin finished off the run with two foul shots.
“Obviously the first quarter was a little rough, but we played Iowa basketball at least in the last three quarters of the game, and everybody got involved and it was really fun,” O’Grady said. “(Coach Bluder told us) to be ourselves. I mean we are obviously a little rusty when we haven’t played in two weeks. She reminded us that we were the better team, and we just need to execute what we know how to do.”
“I thought our team really moved well, they cut hard and it’s really comforting to know that if Caitlin is on the bench that we can still score really well,” Bluder said. “I thought some other people really stepped up in that situation.”
That run really didn’t separate the teams because Iowa only led 23-21 at the end of the quarter. But the second quarter did the trick.
Holy Cross was held to one basket in the quarter. It made 1-of-12 shots, missed all its 3-point attempts after making four in the first period, and scored only nine points. On the other hand, Iowa was back to normal with a 25-point quarter and led 48-30 at halftime.
“We needed to get a hand in on defense and increase our intensity,” Affolter said. “We started breaking up passing lanes and forcing them to take more shots guarded or off balance in the later quarters. We also stepped it up on offense, getting better shots off and really coming together and relying on one another.”
Bronagh Power-Cassidy, the Patriot League player of the year, scored 12 of her 19 points in the first quarter.
“I thought Gabby Marshall, we switched her on (Power-Cassidy), and I thought she did a really good job of trying to keep the ball out of her hands,” Bluder said. “I think we tightened up our defense on them.”
“After the first quarter we were like, ‘all right, we need to dial it in and get some stops,” O’Grady said.
“Our 3-point defense was really good and that was a key for us,” Bluder said. “I thought we did a really good job on the boards. We got great paint points.”
Holy Cross shot only 32 percent and was led by Power-Cassidy’s 19 points and Janelle Allen with 18. The Crusaders made only 7-of-34 3-point attempts (.206).
West Virginia defeated Princeton 63-53 in the second game of the day and will play Iowa at 7 p.m. on Monday.