2-Seed Iowa Advances in NCAA Tournament

IOWA CITY, Iowa – No. 2-Seed Iowa women’s basketball team advanced to round 32 of the NCAA Tournament after defeating Southeastern Lousiana,95-43, on Friday afternoon inside a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

11 Hawkeyes scored as Caitlin Clark recorded her 15th double-double of the season, finishing with 26 points, 12 assists, and seven rebounds. Monika Czinano flirted with her own double-double with 22 points and eight rebounds. Hannah Stuelke finished with 13 points and five rebounds to register her 11th game in double digits.

Cashing in on the second-chance opportunity 👊@CaitlinClark22 x @StuelkeHannah pic.twitter.com/5dcWSf13UY

— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 17, 2023

.@CaitlinClark22 knows how to get the crowd on its feet 👀#MarchMadness x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/eGGMhONS8b

— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 17, 2023

Gabbie Marshall swished a three from the corner in the first 20 seconds to get things going for the Hawkeyes. Iowa shot 67 percent from behind the arc in the first quarter, with Clark going 2-for-3 from the three and 4-for-6 from the field to finish with 12 points. Two Lady Lions turnovers gave fast break points to Czinano and Stuelke to give Iowa a, 28-17, lead heading into the second.

Seven Hawkeyes scored in the second quarter, as 10 of Iowa’s 26 were from the bench. A 10-0, extended their lead 21 with two minutes remaining. Iowa forced eight opponent turnovers, with Marshall having two in the final minute of the quarter to go into halftime with a, 54-32, lead.

The Hawkeyes didn’t take their foot off the gas, going on a, 14-0, scoring run to give SE Louisiana a five-minute scoring drought. Czinano went 5-for-5 from the field to have a quarter-high 10 points as Iowa went into the final 10 minutes up by 36.

Every Iowa player contributed to the stat book to hold the Lady Lions to only two points in the fourth to secure its first-round win and advance to Sunday.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES
• NPOY front runner Caitlin Clark led Iowa with her 17th game this season with +25 pts, +5 rebounds, and +5 assists. The junior finished with 26 points, 12 assists, and 7 rebounds.
• It was Lisa Bluder’s 10th First Round win the NCAA Tournament which is the most by any head coach in Iowa women’s basketball history.
• Second-most points in program history scored in an NCAA Tournament game.
• Coming into the game, SELA was giving up 54.5 ppg and Iowa had 54 points at halftime.
• Iowa is 7-3 in the NCAA Tournament since 2019.
• Clark broke the junior season record for most assists in a single season.
• Iowa improved to 16-1 on its home floor.
• McKenna Warnock notched three blocks for a new career high.
• Clark has scored 20 or more points 30 times this season.
• Monika Czinano registered her 750th career rebound which is good for top-15 in school history.
• The Hawkeyes held the Lady Lions to 11 points in the second half.
• Czinano registered 22 points (10-12 FG) and eight boards.
• It was Iowa’s fourth straight opening round victory. Iowa has won seven out of the last eight First Round matchups.
• Clark is the only player in the nation with more than 870 points, 240 rebounds, 280 assists, and 45 steals this season.

QUOTING P. SUE BECKWITH, MD, HEAD COACH LISA BLUDER
Just coming out, it feels good to play again. You know we were so excited just to play because it had been a while since the Big Ten Tournament. Happy with our performance and the way we shot the ball today. You know defense, we held them to 11 points in the second half. The crowd was amazing. It’s a Friday afternoon. It’s a workday and we have 14,000-plus in here on a Friday afternoon, and we are going to need every one of them to come back on Sunday afternoon because we know that’s going to be a good challenge. But really our bench came in and did well for us, too. We were able to rest our starters quite a bit which is really nice when you just have a one-day prep for the next game.

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UP NEXT
2-Seed Iowa will host 10-Seed Georgia in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. Tipoff will be at 2 p.m. (CT) inside CHA on ABC.

Name a better duo 😎 @CaitlinClark22 x @MCzinano

pic.twitter.com/2HD45KeECy

— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 17, 2023