Party like it's 1993: Hawkeyes defeat Louisville, advance to the Final Four in Dallas
For the 90th game in the last three seasons, the Hawkeyes starting lineup of Clark, Czinano, Marshall, Martin and Warnock took the floor to face the Louisville Cardinals with a stop in the Final Four on the line. A starting lineup that had been through a Covid ravaged season that had them playing in front of no fans in 2021. A starting lineup that fell on it’s home floor against Creighton last season in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. A starting lineup that saw Monika Czinano return for a fifth season, with the hopes of a deep tournament run.
They came into tonight with a chance to accomplish their ultimate goal. Make a Final Four. The night ended with confetti on the court and scissors in their hands, as they cut down the nets and celebrated a 97-83 win over the 5 seed Louisville Cardinals.
“That’s a lot of games. It means a lot, especially for all five of us. We’ve been working on our games collectively as a starting five for so long, working on our relationships with each other,” said Monika Czinano. “I’m so thankful for every single person, not just the starting five. Everybody on our team deserves this. Everybody puts in the work. So there’s no other group I would rather go 90 games with, truly.”
For Caitlin Clark, it was just a couple of years ago that Lisa Bluder sat in the living room of her West Des Moines home, attempting to convince her that a Final Four would be possible at the University of Iowa. One of Clark’s other finalist schools, Notre Dame, had been to the Final Four in back-to-back seasons and seven times in nine seasons. However, Caitlin believed it could be done in Iowa City and now, she has seen that through in her third year with the program.
“I can remember sitting in her living room and her saying, I want to go to a Final Four. And I’m saying, We can do it together and she believed me, so I’m very thankful for that,” said Bluder.
“A lot of people told me it would never happen when I came to the University of Iowa. But she believed in me and that was really all that mattered,” said Clark. “We made our locker room believe and when you dream and work really hard, a lot of really cool things can happen.”
The night wasn’t all confetti and celebration however. Hailey Van Lith had six of the first eight points for the Cardinals and just 2:15 into the game, the Hawkeyes trailed 8-0 and Lisa Bluder was forced to take a timeout. For some fans, maybe worry started to creep in that the moment was going to be too big. The experienced Cardinals were going to be too much.
“I just think we are such a veteran team that everyone just kind of knew we had to stay true to ourselves and just be ourselves in that moment. You could falter. That could have blown up a lot worse than it did,” said McKenna Warnock. “I’m really proud of this group and we really just focused on our defense one step at a time and we knew that our defense leads to our offense.”
Out of the timeout, Caitlin Clark got the Hawkeyes right back on track with a basket, a steal and score, followed by a three-pointer to cut the Cardinals early lead down to 8-7. That was just the beginning of a historic night for Clark.
Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes took the lead in the second quarter and got some breathing room. Back-to-back three-pointers from McKenna Warnock gave Iowa a 38-29 lead midway through the second quarter. However, Jeff Walz’s Louisville squad fought back behind the play of Hailey Van Lith. She had 17 first half points, but Clark bested her with 22 in the first 20 minutes. The Hawkeyes took a 48-43 lead into the locker room.
The second half started like the first half, with Louisville landing the first punch. A basket by Morgan Jones was followed by a steal and score by Rock Island native Chrislyn Carr to cut the Iowa lead down to 48-47. That’s about where the Cardinals highlights ended for the night.
Gabbie Marshall bookended an 11-0 run with three-pointers after going 0/4 from behind the arc in the first half with several rim outs. The Hawkeyes lead was up to 59-47 within the blink of an eye.
“I think it shows how much I’ve grown this year,” said Marshall. “I think at the beginning of the year if I would have missed three shots, I probably would have stopped shooting or not had the confidence…that shows how mentally tough I’ve gotten over the year and (I) just had faith in myself that some would go down.”
She also stepped up on the defensive end of the floor. After going for 17 points on 6/10 shooting in the first half, Hailey Van Lith managed 2/9 shooting from the floor in the second half. The reason? Relentless defense from Gabbie Marshall that continued into the final minutes, even when the game was seemingly decided.
“I think it was just bringing more energy and effort on the defensive and really face guarding her…I like the challenge of guarding the best player and I really take pride in that and I really just wanted to lock down and slow her down in the second half,” said Marshall. “(I was able to) speed her up or kind of annoy her in a way on the defensive end. That’s what you have to with good volume shooters like her…we made a few adjustments that were helpful in the second half.”
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While Van Lith struggled to get her shots to fall in the second 20 minutes, the Hawkeyes did not. Caitlin Clark hit five three-pointers in the first half and three more in the second half. Her eighth one put Iowa up 81-61 just 30 seconds into the fourth quarter. Gabbie Marshall followed with a steal and Caitlin Clark shoveled a loose ball ahead to Marshall and she finished the job to give the Hawkeyes their largest lead of the game.
At that point, the clock was on their side and they had a 22-point lead in their favor. The Cardinals were able to whittle the lead down to 86-76 with 1:16 to play, but a Gabbie Marshall three-point play was the exclamation point on a dominate second half. The Hawkeyes were able to dribble out the final seconds and punched their ticket to Dallas with a 97-83 win.
As for that historic Caitlin Clark night? How about 41 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. An Elite Eight triple-double performance. She is just the fifth player in tournament history to score 40+ points in an Elite Eight game and is the first player, men’s or women’s, to have a 40-point triple-double in an NCAA Tournament game. Clark just continues to set records.
“This is probably the biggest game I played in, but I honestly felt it was one of the most calmness I’ve ever felt before a basketball game in my life. I believed and I visualized to be in this press conference with a hat and a shirt around me. So here we are.”
She also may have been able to sneak the official game ball out of the arena, as a piece of memorabilia for the historic night.
“I did want the game ball, so I chucked it to my dad. I hope they got out of the arena in time, so the NCAA can’t chase ’em down. But I told ’em to run. I’ll get it later at the hotel.”
McKenna Warnock finished with 17 points on 6/10 shooting, while Gabbie Marshall added 14 points on 5/12 shooting. Hannah Stuelke gave 19 valuable minutes off the bench when Monika Czinano was in foul trouble. She finished with six points and two offensive rebounds. The Hawkeyes outscored the Cardinals 18-9 in fast break points and outrebounded them 33-32. They pulled down 27/36 (75.0%) of defensive rebound chances and held Louisville to 12 second chance points, just two days after allowing 21 offensive rebounds against Colorado.
It is also important not to forget to mention assistant coach Jan Jensen. She had a roller coaster day of emotions, as the morning came with devestating news that her father, Dale had passed away at the age of 86 after a fight with pancreatic cancer. Despite his declining state, he still continued to watch every Iowa game, as his daughter helped Iowa make it deeper and deeper into March.
“She is the epitome of an amazing person, amazing coach, so to see her go through that, it’s obviously super tough, especially in one of the highs of all of our lives. But her dad’s dream was to see us do this, and so we knew we had to see it through for that, and I believe he was there with us every step of the way,” said Monika Czinano.
Up next for the Hawkeyes…
The Hawkeyes will take their 30-6 record to the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas for their first Final Four appearance since 1993. Iowa will face the winner of 1 seed South Carolina and 2 seed Maryland on Friday. The game will be on ESPN, but an official tip time has not yet been announced.
