Caitlin Clark, No. 4 Iowa overwhelm Gophers women's basketball in 94-71 victory

IOWA CITY – In a short amount of time, the Gophers women's basketball team found itself facing a long afternoon.

Less than 10 minutes, probably. Less than a half of basketball, for certain. In a jam-packed Carver-Hawkeye Arena, as conference play resumed for both teams, fourth-ranked Iowa came out swinging, the Gophers missing.

The final: Iowa 94, Gophers 71 in front of 14,998 fans on a day that Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark became the Big Ten's all-time assist leader.

"Iowa is a great team," said Amaya Battle, who hit seven of 17 shots, led the Gophers with 16 points, and had five assists, five steals and just two turnovers. "Any time you give a great team a little bit, they can go really far with it. In the beginning, we didn't come out hard."

Less than five minutes into the game the Gophers were already down 12, having hit just two of eight shots while Iowa came out 7-for-8. The Gophers (11-2, 1-1 Big Ten) were down 13 after a quarter, by 18 at the half and by 21 less than two minutes into the third quarter after Clark hit her third three of the second half.

"Honestly, I don't know if we were ready to come out," Gophers guard Mara Braun said. "Against a team like this, in an environment like this, you have to be ready from the top. They kind of punched us in the face and we really couldn't come back from that."

Said Clark, who now has 902 assists: "We took this team very seriously. They're really good; they're a young team, but they're really good. ... I think honestly, the start to the game, getting up nine or 10, whatever it was, was huge for us. And really, they kind of struggled to fight back from that point."

Braun scored 15 points and Sophie Hart had 13.

It would be easy to call it the Clark show. She made 13 of 22 shots and went 8-for-16 on threes. Iowa coach Lisa Bluder left Clark in the game until there were less than five minutes left in the game, not pulling Clark until she got her 10th assist with 4:41 left.

But it wasn't just Clark. The Hawkeyes (13-1, 2-0) — particularly guard Gabbie Marshall — played some very good defense. And the Hawkeye offense was unstoppable. The Gophers never figured out Iowa's combination of Hannah Stuelke and Kate Martin running the floor and the wicked Clark-led pick and roll.

Iowa scored 48 points in the paint, 33 from behind the arc. Stuelke scored 19 on 9-for-10 shooting with eight rebounds. Martin had 13 and was 5-for-7. The Hawkeyes finished the game shooting 58.3%.

"Iowa played at a very high level," Gophers coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. "They did a lot of good things, took it right at us in the beginning. They out-competed us early on, and we kind of dug ourselves a hole. They attacked, they got to the rim. And, for whatever reason, we didn't help each other a whole lot."

Marshall? She didn't score a point, but she was the best plus-minus player on the floor, helping force Braun into a 4-for-16 afternoon. Braun — second to Clark in Big Ten scoring entering the weekend — also had five assists, five rebounds and only one turnover.

And a little bit of frustration.

"I'm proud of the team, the way we stuck together," Braun said. "There wasn't one time where we were kind of yelling at each other. Because that can happen in an environment like this. Everyone was frustrated, but everybody stayed together. We'll bounce back."

The Gophers have a few days before playing host to Maryland on Wednesday.

"They pushed it," Plitzuweit said of the Hawkeyes. "They attacked us. We didn't get up and down the court on the offensive end either. So we have to go back and re-evaluate and fix some things and figure out how to compete, in the next couple days so we have a chance to go out and play the way we're capable of playing."