By Susan Harman

ALBANY, N.Y. – Oh, you remember this Iowa team. We hadn’t seen them for a while but they showed up Saturday in spades and trumped Colorado, 89-68.

Iowa faces LSU on Monday at 6 p.m. (CDT) on ESPN in a rematch of last year’s national championship to see who advances to the Final Four.

This Iowa team had no resemblance to the group that escaped West Virginia’s upset bid in Iowa City’s second-round game. This team was immediately focused, immediately successful and kept the pressure on the entire 40 minutes.

“I just think we came out and we were super mission focused,” Kate Martin said. “I thought our defense was really good tonight. I think we should do that every night. I believe in every single person in our locker room and (this performance) didn’t surprise me one single bit.

“I think we controlled from the tip to the final whistle. I think you saw a really composed veteran team out there tonight.”

Not only did the Hawkeyes have the right mindset, they executed their game plan in several key areas. *They shut down Colorado’s potent 3-point shooting, holding the Buffs to 27.6 percent;

*They effectively neutralized Colorado’s inside duo of Aaronette Vonleh and Quay Miller;

*They were able to attack the basket on offense getting easier shots and drawing fouls;

*They outrebounded Colorado and limited Vonleh to zero offensive rebounds;

*Iowa had five players score in double figures.

Colorado came in averaging 36 percent from behind the arc, and the players who take the vast majority of the threes, Frida Formann and Maddie Nolan, shoot 42 percent and 44 percent. But as Iowa built a first-half lead CU made only 3-of-14 threes and finished just 8-29 (.276). Nolan and Formann finished with 12 points apiece. They never really got going.

“We talked about that and that was a focus of our scouting report to get a hand up in the shooter space,” Sydney Affolter said.

“They have some really good outside shooters, and we just tried to keep the ball out of their hands and know where they all are at all times,” Martin said.

One of the concerns coming into the game was how to manage Colorado’s two 6-foot-3 bigs. Well, Iowa found the answer. Vonleh, the team’s leading scorer, played only 7:46 in the first half, while Miller was limited to 5 minutes. Both had two fouls and CU elected to park them to save them for the second half, but Iowa built a 13-point halftime lead in their absence.

“I think just attacking them on the inside,” Hannah Stuelke said of Iowa’s method.

Vonleh just killed K-State with her interior defense in the second round. She had seven steals, but against Iowa she had no offensive rebounds and just five total, scoring 13 points. Miller was held to five rebounds and five points. Iowa out-rebounded Colorado by nine.

“Yeah that was huge,” Martin said of CU’s fouls. “The best way to guard somebody is to put them on the bench, and Hannah did a really good job of drawing fouls inside,” Martin said. “And we were all trying to get to the basket, and when you do that you draw fouls and put them on the bench, so they have to bring in subs and when they bring in subs we can double or we can provide more help to the other players.”

Creating problems for Colorado’s posts also created opportunities for Iowa’s offense.

“They were pressuring a lot, and I think that was their game plan, and then also when you’re so focused on Caitlin you kind of turn your head, and then you know they forget about you sometimes,” Kate Martin said. “Then Syd or someone else can get back door.”

Affolter said they looked at how CU handled screens in the first half.

“They seemed to flood a lot,” she said. “And whether they choose to stay with the driver or stay with Hannah, you know some one’s going to be open. We work on that a lot in practice.”

Clark, who was masterful with the ball against the Buffs, finished with 15 assists and 29 points.

“I knew they were going to give me really good ball pressure coming into this game, and honestly when we set our first couple of ball screens, they were playing drop coverage,” Clark said. “Just kind of their big was just staying in the paint. I knew either Hannah was going to be open on the roll or I was going to be able to get pretty easy lay-ups, and that’s kind of what they went with, more just me off all the screens and giving up drives.”

Clark didn’t shoot well from 3-point range (3-11), but she did everything else including keeping her emotions in check.

“That’s the part that I would say is the hard piece is that she got everybody else involved,” CU guard Jaylyn Sherrod said. “It just speaks to the type player she is. She’s unselfish and she got everybody else going. I think they had four players in double figures—five. That’s just tough when everybody else is hitting.”

“It’s one thing to guard a great scorer, it’s another thing to guard the leading assist getter in America, as well,” Colorado coach J.R. Payne said. “That’s what makes her so deadly is not just the scoring, which in and of itself is pretty incredible, but it’s the ability to…find the person that’s open.”

Clark had 29 points, Affolter 15, Marshall and Martin 14 each and Stuelke 11. Clearly Iowa is at its best if it spreads the scoring around and just as clearly Clark was determined to get that done.

“I think we put together a complete basketball game today both offensively and defensively and that was the most important thing and we got to the rim in transition and we got stops on defense which led to that,” Affolter said. “I think it was a really fun basketball game, and everyone played super well.”