Hawkeyes advance to the Elite Eight
A huge third quarter that saw the Iowa women’s basketball team outscored Colorado by 12 points fueled the Hawkeyes to a 87-77 win over the Buffs and advance to the Elite Eight.
This will be the second time that Iowa has advanced to the Elite Eight. Iowa made it there back in 2019 before losing to Baylor. Their opponent will be determined in the second game from Seattle when Ole Miss will face Louisville.
It was a true back and forth game in the first half. Iowa jumped out early in the first quarter. A Caitlin Clark traditional three point play put Iowa up 15-5 with 4:47 left in the first quarter. As usual, Clark led the Hawkeyes attack with 31 points and she also dished out 8 assists in the game.
Colorado then made a push of their own in the in the first quarter. The Buffs went on a 10-0 run to tie the game at 15-15 with 3:16 left in the game. That run was led by Frida Formann, who had 19 points in the first half.
The rest of the first quarter and half was a back and forth battle. Iowa led 23-22 at the end of the first quarter and Monkia Czinano got her offense going with an early bucket. She battled foul trouble in the game and scored 15 points in the game.
Kate Martin put Iowa up 28-24 after knocking down a three pointer, but Colorado kept fighting. A Formann layup put Colorado up 37-32 with 4:16 remaining in the third quarter. Clark answered with a layup and then buckets by Gabbie Marshall and Czinano put Iowa up 38-37 with 1:02 left in the half.
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Colorado ended up leading at the break after a layup by Tameiya Sadler off an Iowa turnover. The Buffs lead was thanks to Iowa giving up 12 offensive rebounds in the first half of the game.
While the defensive rebounding issues continued in the second half, Iowa got hot from the floor in the third quarter. The Hawkeyes were led by Clark, who scored 7 points in a 13-0 run by the Hawkeyes to build a 54-42 lead with 5:04 left in the third quarter.
Iowa went to the fourth quarter with a 64-53 edge in the game and opened it up to 14 after a triple by Gabbie Marshall. With Iowa up 67-53, Iowa then had to really hold on down the stretch. Colorado made a strong push down the stretch, cutting the lead to four at 78-74, but Clark found Czinano for a bucket in the paint to give Iowa a six point lead with 1:15 left in the game.
From there, Iowa salted away the victory from the foul line and moved on to the Elite Eight on Sunday.
