Iowa women dismantle Drake’s defense in 113-90 victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena
By Susan Harman
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Defense might have been optional, but the result was majestic, free-flowing offensive basketball favored by both Iowa and Drake. Iowa overwhelmed Drake 113-90 Sunday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a display not seen this season and extremely unlikely in any season.
“Great game,” Drake coach Allison Pohlman said. “If you like fast-paced, up-tempo, put the ball in the hole, we gave you some entertainment.”
“It was a lot of fun,” Drake’s Grace Berg said.
“That’s the most fun type of basketball is to play offense like that,” Iowa’s Caitlin Clark said. “I think that’s what our crowd loves to come and see, so it’s fun to give them that excitement after only scoring 58 points on Thursday.”
The Hawkeyes set a team record with 64 first-half points en route to a 64-41 lead. Drake shot 50 percent that half, but Iowa shot an astounding 65 percent. It started with a first quarter in which Iowa made 15 of its 20 shots. Oddly enough the All American Clark was the one who missed the five shots. Everyone else was 11-11.
“I’m sorry I let them down; it’s really disappointing to me,” Clark joked in postgame media conference.
For the game Drake shot 51.5 percent and scored 90 points, surely good enough to win 99 percent of your games. But Iowa was just that much better, shooting 64.3 percent overall, 54.2 percent from 3-point range, and 90 percent from the foul line en route to a season-high 113 points. The 113 was near the record of 115 set last season against Evansville.
“When the other team shoots 65 percent and then from three shoots 55 percent, your margin of error gets a lot shortened,” Pohlman said. “And when you play another team that shoots it that well, the details really matter. We had 22 turnovers, so if you get back 10 to 12 of those opportunities to be able to shoot when we shot 52 percent from the field, you give yourself a little bit better chance.”
“I thought we came out and resumed playing Iowa basketball: high assists, low turnovers,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “I just thought our energy level was a lot better out there tonight. We were more focused.”
Kate Martin broke out of a scoring funk to record a career high 25 points. Martin worked the baseline like it was drawn up in the locker room exposing holes in Drake’s matchup zone.
“Kate Martin had a special game for us,” Bluder said. “She played like she was playing last summer.”
“I think in their matchup zone corners and short corners were really vulnerable, and I was getting the ball down there and just kind of driving to the hole. It kept working for me and I kept doing it.”
Martin also nailed 3-of-4 3-pointers after starting the season 0-for-8.
“I just kind of shot it with confidence tonight,” she said. “All week my teammates have been building me up, and coach Bluder and all the coaches have been building me up. It’s not fun not to make a three in the first three or four games, but really it was just confidence.”
Bluder did give her defense credit for limiting Drake’s 3-point prowess. The Bulldogs have a whole team of shooters, but the Hawkeyes held them to 8-for-31 (.258).
“Drake averages almost 12 threes a game, so we held them to 26 percent 3-point shooting when they’re averaging over 40 percent,” she said. “So I thought that was big for us.”
Sharon Goodman scored 15 and Molly Davis 10 for Iowa.
Hannah Stuelke played only 13 minutes. Bluder explained that Stuelke had soreness in a knee and given that the team is going to play three games in three days beginning Friday it made sense to let Goodman and Addy O’Grady fill the post.
Clark scored 35 points with 10 assists and had seven steals. She made 14 of her 22 shots and 5-of-11 threes. Drake had five players in double figures, led by Berg’s 19, and nine players scored overall.
“Coach Bluder challenged us when we came to practice after the K-State loss, and I thought everybody responded really well,” Clark said.
“I just didn’t think we were very disciplined in running our offense, and you know paying attention to detail and being focused and we got back to that tonight,” Bluder said.
Iowa (4-1) plays in the Clean Simple Eats Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida Friday through Sunday. The team travels on Wednesday.