Hawkeyes shake off a slow start, roll past Loyola-Chicago

It took a while for things to get right on both ends of the floor for the Hawkeyes on Thursday night, but when they did, it was smooth sailing for Lisa Bluder and Co. The Iowa women’s basketball team shook off a slow start that saw them trailing by as many as seven points in the first half and defeated Loyola-Chicago 98-69. Caitlin Clark recorded her 13th triple-double of her career and the Hawkeyes move to 12-1 heading into the Christmas Break.

“Our defense wasn’t very good to begin the game, but it got a lot better in the second half. We held them to 23 points in the whole second half. Loyola shot the ball well, too well and that’s on us,” said head coach Lisa Bluder. “Maybe this break is coming at a good time for us.”

The Hawkeyes were notably without Gabbie Marshall who was out due to an illness, but the Ramblers came into the game having not yet defeated a team inside the top 200 of the NET rankings. However, early on in the game, they showed that they were not scared of the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes.

“You have to give credit to Loyola. They made some threes, they made some contested threes. We sagged off a few girls that made some. Things like that are going to happen, it’s just about how you adjust and respond,” said Caitlin Clark.

Kika Hodge-Carr and Emma Nolan each hit three-pointers to give Loyola an early 8-4, but a 13-2 run from the Hawkeyes, including a couple of Clark to Stuelke transition baskets made it 17-10. The Ramblers battled back and a basket from Alyssa Fisher in the closing seconds of the first quarter cut the Iowa lead to 21-19.

The troubles for Iowa continued into the second quarter. A three from Kate Martin made it 24-20 Hawkeyes, but Loyola hit shots to regain their lead. The Ramblers hit their next six shots, including a three-pointer from Hodge-Carr that capped off a 15-4 run. All of the sudden it was 35-28 Loyola.

“It was just discipline on defense. A lot of the things, were things that we had talked about prepping for this game. Some mental errors for us and we were switching our matchups quite a bit, but that can’t be an excuse. That comes down to communication and focus,” said Caitlin Clark. “I think that changed in the second half, we were much more locked in on defense.”

The Hawkeyes answered with an 8-0 run of their own. After a basket from Hannah Stuelke, Caitlin Clark stole the Loyola inbounds pass and scored to give Iowa a 36-35 lead. Then they closed the half on an 8-2 run, including a three-pointer from Kate Martin in the closing seconds to make it 51-46 at the break. The Hawkeyes had eight assists to ten turnovers in the first half and allowed Loyola to shoot 52.9% from the floor.

Sneaky 🤫@CaitlinClark22 x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/rLWiL2y09U

— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) December 21, 2023

“I think we just tried to build each other up at halftime. We were a little dissapointed with how we came out and I’m a little disappointed in my leadership there with how we started the game. I think I can be more vocal and keep people together,” said Kate Martin. “At halftime, it was just value the ball. We knew what we needed to do and it was just uncharacterstic mistakes. It was just coming out more focused in the second half.”

In the second half, the mood changed for the Hawkeyes. The defensive intensity ratcheted up and on the offensive end, they started to take care of the ball a bit more. That led to good things.

Iowa used a 19-3 run spearheaded by nine points from Caitlin Clark to blow things open. A layup by Clark made it 72-54 with 2:04 remaining in the third quarter and Loyola was forced to take a timeout. But at that point, the game was all but over.

“At the beginning of the game we were playing pretty fast, made some careless turnovers, some handoff turnovers. I just think we came out a little bit more assertive in the second half and determined not to do that (again),” said Bluder.

In the fourth quarter, the focus turned to Caitlin Clark trying to get her 13th career triple-double. She found Hannah Stuelke for assist #8, Addi O’Grady for assist #9 and finally, with 2:51 to play, Jada Gyamfi for assist #10. Clark finished with 35 points, ten assists and a career-high 17 rebounds.

“Ten assists is all because of my teammates, so I’m just thankful for them and Coach Bluder let me have the opportunity to get it,” said Clark. “Always cool when you get one of those.”

Aside from the 17 rebounds by Caitlin, Lisa Bluder got good rebounding nights out of Hannah Stuelke (8) and Sydney Affolter (7). Stuelke pulled down seven boards in the second half, while Affolter finished with six offensive rebounds.

“That’s her game, right? She’s going to go and clean up the garbage. Syd’s a blue collar player, she’s going to get on the floor loose balls, she’s going to work hard on defense, she’s going to get rebounds for us. It’s not always pretty, but it’s effective and that’s all that matters.”

“I really challenged (Hannah) at halftime. She only had one rebound and she finished with eight, so I’m really happy with the way she responded with that.”

Hannah Stuelke finished with 20 points on 9/15 and eight rebounds, while Kate Martin added 19 points, including three three-pointers. Sydney Affolter provided a spark off the bench with ten points and seven rebounds.

For the game, the Hawkeyes shot 35/70 (50.0%) from the floor and outrebounded the Ramblers 51-27, including 14-3 on the offensive glass. Iowa pulled down 37 of 40 (92.5%) defensive rebound chances. On the defensive end, they forced 23 turnovers and held Loyola to just 26.7% shooting in the second half.

Up Next, the Hawkeyes will jump back into Big Ten play after Christmas with a home matchup against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on December 29th. Tipoff is set for 1:00pm CT and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.