By Susan Harman

MINNEAPOLIS—This was a championship game that lived up to its name.

Threes were flying; shots were blocked; defenses changed; kids hit the deck time after time; the lead changed constantly in the final quarter and overtime. Gabbie Marshall thumped her chest in OT after destroying another Husker possession. Caitlin Clark rallied from a four-point first half to finish with 34 points and 12 assists.

And for the third season in row Iowa cut down the nets at the Big Ten Tournament after beating Nebraska 94-89 in overtime. As time expired Clark flung the ball into the stands, and it was caught by an Iowa fan.

“I think it was real gritty and resilient out of our group,” Clark said. “We just found a way to win, and that speaks to the team we have, the maturity we have.

“Our fans they were incredible. They kind of willed us to this victory. They never gave up on us. We never gave up on each other.”

“I thought we fought hard, and we had to,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “It’s not very often we have fought from behind.”

Iowa dug a big hole in the first half when its offense was out of sync, something like what happened in the fourth quarter in Lincoln. Iowa didn’t shoot well, and Clark, in particular, was ice cold. At times it looked like she was forcing the action. Iowa was 13-of-38 in the first half. Clark was 2-for-13 and missed all nine of her 3-point shots.

“Our offense just wasn’t flowing. We needed to have better movement,” Kate Martin said. “We need to cut harder,” Kate Martin said. “Nebraska came out and punched us right in the face, and we needed to punch back. We were down 11 at halftime; we knew it was going to take one step at a time, one score at a time to get back into it.”

In the third quarter Iowa’s energy was evident.

“I think we were just focusing on some negatives like missing shots,” Sydney Affolter said. “And that was leading to putting us on the defensive. We were giving up a lot of O-boards and letting down on defense, and we really locked in on that. We said no matter what our offense is doing we need to lock it down on defense and get rebounds, and we really locked in on that.”

Iowa outscored Nebraska 23-12 in the third period to tie the game at 58. Clark scored 12 herself.

“We just tried to reset at halftime,” Bluder said. “I thought they came out and that third quarter was really good.”

The Huskers led a lot of the fourth quarter and built a 75-67 lead with less than 3 minutes to play.

Clark hit a three that riled the crowd.

“I think it gave us some life,” Clark said. “Eight points and five points seems a lot different.”

Stuelke scored on a fast break, and Nebraska answered with an Alexis Markowski basket to bump the lead to five. Martin then hit arguably the biggest shot of the game, a 3-pointer from the corner with just more than a minute to play. The crowd went nuts.

“They left me wide open,” Martin said. “That’s what happens when Hannah is playing really well in the interior, and then Caitlin, obviously she draws so much attention, so much help and I was wide open.”

“Kate’s an amazing shooter, and she’s such a great basketball player,” Affolter said. “We all knew it was going down.”

Iowa got a stop when freshman Logan Nissley missed an open three, and Natalie Potts fouled to give Iowa possession. Clark scored on a drive down the lane to tie the game at 77 with 29 seconds to play. Iowa had outscored the Huskers 10-2 in the final two minutes.

“The leadership out here tonight was really good, the second half exceptionally good,” Bluder said.

Martin said Iowa expected Markowski or Jaz Shelley to get the final shot.

“We didn’t want them to make a three, and we were trying not to foul as well,” she said.

Iowa’s defenders flew around making it impossible for the big two to get the ball. It fell to Nissley again on the left wing, and she missed her 15-footer.

Iowa’s players reacted like they had won the lottery. And maybe they did, dodging those late Husker leads.

“I thought they picked up their defensive pressure,” Nebraska coach Amy Williams said. “They knew that Jaz Shelley had a game winner against them at our place when we were able to knock them off. So I think they tightened things up.”

“Once we got into overtime, we kind of knew ‘you just go and take it,’” Clark said.

The overtime was tense and the lead changed hands. Martin hit two threes early, and Nissley had two threes. Iowa took the lead for good, 89-87, on a Clark three with 51 seconds left. Clark then stole a skip pass and made two free throws.

On the next NU possession Gabbie Marshall blocked a 3-point attempt and grabbed possession. Stuelke missed two free throws, her first misses of the tournament, and Markowski got inside for a bucket to cut the lead to 91-89 with 21 seconds left.

Martin was fouled and made one and missed one. Stuelke leaped high among the taller Huskers and snagged the board and was fouled. This time she made both. Marshall messed up another Husker possession along the sideline and allowed herself a chest thump. Clark stole a skip pass and the rest was confetti all over everyone.

Marshall was not made available to reporters post game, but her teammates knew what she had contributed to this win.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Gabbie,” Martin said. “She works her butt off every single game on defense, and she doesn’t always get as much credit as she deserves. For her to come up huge with her defense in the Big Ten championship game, I’m just super proud of her. And that block; I have chills thinking about it.”

About 19,000 Iowa fans probably still have chills walking to their cars.