By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Caitlin Clark did everything she could do to carry her teammates over the finish line Thursday against North Carolina State, but she didn’t get enough help. North Carolina State defeated Iowa 94-81 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena leaving the Hawkeyes at 5-3 for the season.

Clark scored 45 of Iowa’s points, one shy of her single-game record posted last season against Michigan. McKenna Warnock added 15.

Then again, 81 points should be enough. Thursday it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Very disappointed in our defensive effort,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “We started out good in the first quarter. The second, third and fourth were not good. We gave up 46 paint points. We usually own the paint. For us to give up 46 paint points is not good.”

“We didn’t have a sense of urgency,” McKenna Warnock said. “I think it was pretty obvious. There was a weird dullness on defense.”

The Wolfpack took control in the second half. It wasn’t as if the Hawkeyes weren’t scoring, but they couldn’t get defensive stops.  N.C. State led 63-53 after three quarters. Clark tried to light a fuse with a drive to the basket and three 3-pointers in a row during Iowa’s first four possessions to pull the Hawkeyes within four.

With the crowd jacked up the poised Pack answered by scoring in eight of their next nine possessions to keep the Hawks at bay. NC State’s 5-foot-5 Diamond Johnson scored 11 points in that run, both driving the lane and hitting jumpers. She finished with 22 points as did Saniya Rivers. Those two made a combined 17-of-23 shots, including 5-of-7 3-pointers.

“We were hot,” Rivers said. “We didn’t want them to make a run. We knew what we had to do to keep the lead.”

“We kept our composure in that environment,” NC State coach Wes Moore said. “I think we only had two turnovers in the second half, which is really big because when you turn it over against them it’s offense.”

The Pack had five double-figure scorers.

“We didn’t play defense,” Clark said. “We could have scored 90 points and still lost the game. Our ball-screen defense could have been better. Our help defense could have been better. Literally all of it could have been better. I thought it was pretty good against UConn (Sunday), and we come here on our home floor and it wasn’t good at all. That’s the reason we lost; it wasn’t anything other than that.”

Bluder said the Pack’s 46 points in the paint clearly showed the team wasn’t in good help-side position.

“We were just kind of off key the entire night,” Warnock said. “We rotated slow and that will get us out of position for boxing out (on rebounds). There’s just more urgency that we need, and that’s absolutely on us.”

NC State bottled up Iowa post Monika Czinano, who got only four shots and scored seven points. Czinano, who averaged 17 points a year ago, has been held to single-digit scoring in three of the last four games.

“That was a focus in practice,” Johnson said. “We knew how good she was. We knew how efficient she is. We knew if she got off a shot it had a good chance of going in. Our posts did a really good job pushing her up so the guards could help. We tried to make it tough for her. We were physical with her.”

Iowa’s inability to get the ball to Czinano baffled Bluder. Unlike teams who have doubled Czinano or fronted her with help at the ready, the Wolfpack played behind her.

 “Why can’t you pass the ball to the post when the defense is on her back?” Bluder asked, rhetorically. “It’s maddening.”

 NC State had something to do with that, using 6-3 Camille Hobby and 6-5 River Baldwin to guard Czinano. Their post defenders almost always got help when the ball did find Czinano.

There were other curiosities. Kate Martin hit all six of her 3-point shots against UConn Sunday. She only took two 3-pointers Thursday, making one. Gabbie Marshall and Molly Davis combined to go 0-for-7. Hannah Stuelke supplied some offense off the bench but committed three turnovers.

Iowa will try to find some answers Sunday at Wisconsin as Big Ten play begins.

Moore tipped his hat to Clark.

“Caitlin Clark, I don’t know if I’ve seen anything like that,” he said. “That was unbelievable. I thought our kids did a pretty good job, that’s what’s scary.”

“It was a fun matchup,” Rivers said. “Forty-five, that’s insane.”

Clark was less impressed.

“I think whenever I score 40 points we lose, so it’s not something I want to do,” she said ruefully.