All American Caitlin Clark was brilliant, albeit against smaller and less experienced guards, and Iowa’s posts easily controlled the paint in a 102-46 victory over Fairleigh Dickinson in the opener to a much-anticipated women’s basketball season.

Clark had 17 points in the first quarter alone. She finished with 21 first-half points on 8-of-12 shooting Overall she scored 28, had 10 assists and seven rebounds.

“I think our transition game early was really good,” Clark said. “As a team only seven turnovers on 28 assists is really good.”

The bench performed with enthusiasm and skill, something Iowa coach Lisa Bluder was looking for. In fact it was the bench players who produced the play of the game at the end of the first quarter.

After FDU grabbed an offensive rebound with 14 seconds left, the Knights wanted to hold for the last shot. But Iowa’s Taylor McCabe, Molly Davis and Sydney Affolter put on a run-and-jump trap out near midcourt and freshman Bella Toomey couldn’t control the ball. Finally Toomey seemed to have regained possession with her back to the basket when Affolter dove at the ball and swatted it toward the Iowa basket. With Affolter lying flat on the court and grinning, the ball trickled toward the basket. Davis somehow caught up with it and hurled it up like a reverse layup to score and beat the horn.

The bench, full of starters, erupted, as did the crowd.

“They probably should have given me a technical for being on the court,” Clark admitted. “Syd’s just one of those players that’s going to do the dirty work. She’s busted her lip in practice, lost part of her tooth. Those are plays Syd makes every day, and then Molly makes crazy layups like that all the time.”

“It was a great hustle play,” Bluder said. “You love that when you’re playing at home and you’re up and they’re diving on the floor. I mean, Syd just laid out to get that ball. And Molly, what a shot. I loved how much the fans appreciated the hustle of the team.”

Affolter finished with 11 points and six rebounds.

Sharon Goodman started in place of Addy O’Grady at center. It was Goodman’s first start of her career.

“She’s been producing in practice, playing great,” Bluder said. “She’s been sealing big; she’s been asking for the ball. She’s been scoring at a good rate; she runs the floor hard.”

“I think it’s just been building confidence through practice,” Goodman said. “I have teammates that continue to tell me to keep going.”

Goodman, a redshirt junior, has had a star-crossed career at Iowa, losing one year to an ACL injury and being limited the following season. So this was almost like a debutant’s coming out party as she was introduced to the big crowd as a starter.

“I was thinking it’s been since February 2020 that I started my last basketball game,” she said. “That was a long time ago, a month after my mom passed away. So just looking back over all that’s happened since then, and that was a lot of my thoughts…but also just grateful for the coaches and my teammates.”

Goodman had a career-best 19 points, made 7-of-8 shots from the field and all five of her free throws.

Hannah Stuelke also started her first game at the power forward position. Stuelke was a revelation. She made 9-of-10 shots and all three of her free throws, a point of emphasis for her in the off season. She had 22 points, nine rebounds and two steals. She did all that in just 18:34 minutes.

It wasn’t just her production, but Stuelke also showed off an ability to penetrate on the dribble, a definite expansion of her game. And she hit a 3-pointer from the right side on a pass from Clark.

“Caitlin passed it and she was like ‘Shoot it,’” Stuelke said. “She’s like ‘Shoot it, shoot it, shoot it.’ So I said if she thinks I can make it… and I did.”

“Hannah has been working really hard on her shot, and we all know that she can really make it,” Clark said. “That’s going to be an important part of our team if she can knock down one or two here or there.”

It was the second three of Stuelke’s career. She also reminded fans of her ability to get up and down the court and beat the defense to the other end. When she did, Clark or one of the other ball handlers invariably found her.

Iowa shot poorly behind the arc (6-for-28), and that will have to improve, but the three posts (Stuelke, Goodman and O’Grady) combined to make 20 of 27 shots from the field. Iowa had 50 more points in the paint than did the Knights and made 34 of 45 shots inside the arc.

Now it gets exponentially harder with a game against Virginia Tech Thursday night at 7 p.m. on a neutral court in Charlotte, N.C. The Hokies were a Final Four team a year ago and bring back every significant player from that team.