Iowa forward Hannah Stuelke seizes moment against UConn
By Susan Harman
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The battle of superstar All Americans Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers was subordinated by the battle of Hawkeyes and Huskies Friday night in the NCAA semifinals at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
The Hawkeyes played solid defense and used a little pixie dust to win 71-69.
After two terrific outings in victories over Colorado and LSU, Iowa was not very good in the first half against the Huskies. The Hawkeyes had more turnovers (12) than baskets (11) in the first half. They shot a dismal 37.9 percent overall and 21.4 percent from behind the arc. Player of the Year Caitlin Clark was held to three baskets (out of 11 shots) and six points. At one point Connecticut led by 12 points.
Bueckers paid tribute to senior teammate Nika Muhl for defending Clark.
“You saw the epitome of what Nika is, a tenacious defender, does everything this team needs her to do, controls the offense, plays with so much heart and energy, and plays with her whole soul,” Bueckers said.
Clark also commended the Huskies’ defense
“UConn is a really good defensive team, one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen all year. I think Nika did a tremendous job guarding me,” Clark said. “We got some good looks. They just didn’t go in. And sometimes that’s just what happens. We missed some easy bunnies around the rim.
“When I started driving they threw two people at me. They were going to make me give up the ball.”
The defense was stout, but Iowa’s ballhandling was sloppy, and that helped make Iowa appear passive.
Hannah Stuelke was a bright spot. She made 4-of-5 shots for eight points in the half.
“I think from the jump I was being aggressive,” Stuelke said. “I thought I prepared better for this game than I did for the last.”
“I think tonight she played with an energy about herself of she really could go in there and dominate,” Clark said. “She goes toe to toe with Aaliyah Edwards, who in my mind is one of the best players in the country. It was physical with her. Guarded her well. Boxed her out. And she wasn’t afraid to take it at her either.”
Associate head coach Jan Jensen said she talked with Stuelke that this could be her moment, that her quickness could offset Edwards’ 6-3 size and strength.
Stuelke made hay with drives down the lane and inside moves away from Edwards long arms.
“I just thought that matchup was pretty big tonight,” Jensen said.
Stuelke finished with a team-high 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting and made 5-of-7 free throws.
Like Bueckers, who finished with 17 but was 3-for-9 in the first half, Clark struggled mightily in the first half and made none of her six 3-point attempts.
The 11 Iowa turnovers were the main subject at halftime.
“Our shots weren’t necessarily falling like usual in the first half,” junior Sydney Affolter said. “I think we could have driven a bit more. But we have all the confidence in the world. We’re in the gym all the time. Shooters shoot. We just kept telling ourselves to keep shooting. We were down by six points at halftime; that’s nothing. We really came out in that third quarter and executed our offense.”
“They played really good defense on me,” Clark said. “But I think the best thing about our group is we went into the locker room at halftime and it wasn’t, like, ‘oh, come on, you’ve got to make shots.’ It was, ‘no, stop turning the ball over, and you’re going to be perfectly fine.’
“We knew at some point our shots would go down. We put up 45 points in the second half, 25 in the third quarter. Came out in the fourth quarter, started really hot.”
Iowa shot 44 percent in the third quarter and 67 percent in the fourth.
Clark finished with 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Iowa finished with 16 turnovers, just five in the second half albeit two at crunch time.
Kate Martin had just three points in the first half but rebounded with eight in the second including critical turnaround jumpers and fadeaways at the end of the shot clock.
“I think Kate’s just toughness, leadership, resiliency and leadership is the biggest thing,” Clark said. “You see it — Kate’s a pro player. You see her game, she’s hitting fadeaway jump shots, she’s going at people. The way she took over at the end of the fourth, she came up with, I think, six straight points for us.”
The teams were tied after three quarters, but Affolter thought that was the key quarter for Iowa.
“We won that quarter by six and we really just took possession by possession, and once our shots started falling I think we got in our groove a bit more,” she said.