Top Takeaways: Iowa Women's Basketball win over UConn

On Friday night, the Iowa Women’s Basketball team became just the fifth team since 2000 to advance to back-to-back national championship games with a 71-69 win over UConn. The Hawkeyes erased a 12-point first half deficit and held off a late Huskies rally to secure the victory.

At the time of this writing, it is 3:02am local time in Cleveland, so let’s get right into it, with the top takeaways from the Hawkeyes win over Connecticut.

1. The Hawkeyes were not flustered by their first half scuffles

The sign of a great team is how they respond when facing adversity. The Hawkeyes encountered significant challenges in the first half against UConn, falling behind by as much as 12 points and scoring a season-low of 26 points. This was largely due to 12 turnovers, which the Huskies converted into 13 points, and a 3-for-14 performance from the behind the arc. Caitlin Clark went into the locker room with just six points.

“We just talked about valuing the ball. We just turned the ball over. Our defense was really pretty good. They scored 13 points off of our turnovers. So we take that out of the mix and it’s a totally different half,” said Coach Lisa Bluder.

Caitlin Clark echoed the quote of her head coach saying, “The best thing about our group is we went into the locker room at halftime and it wasn’t, like, oh, come on, you’ve got to make shots. It was, no, stop turning the ball over and you’re going to be perfectly fine.”

They narrowed a 12-point deficit to just six by halftime and then made adjustments for the next 20 minutes. In the second half, the Hawkeyes only committed four turnovers, which led to sharper offensive possessions. They hit 53.3% of their shots from the floor and scored 45 points, with 25 coming in the third quarter alone. Despite trailing 13-5 in points off turnovers at halftime, Iowa outscored their opponents 10-6 in the second half in that department.

Trailing 28-16 midway through the second quarter, many teams would have panicked and folded. Lisa Bluder has a veteran team and they knew that if they focused on playing “Iowa Basketball” in the second half, shots would start to fall and they would have a shot to win the game.

2. Kate Martin and Hannah Stuelke were the MVP’s of the game

With the fact that Caitlin Clark had delivered three straight Elite Eight or Final Four games with 40+ points, it would have been hard to imagine the Hawkeyes getting a win with her scoring just 21 points.

On a night where Caitlin Clark was kept in check, the Hawkeyes needed to step up with a big game and Hannah Stuelke delivered. The coaching staff has tried to instill confidence in Hannah Stuelke all season because when she plays confidently, she has the ability to compete with any interior player in the country. Stuelke put up a game-high 23 points on 9 of 12 shooting, as well 5 of 7 from the free throw line. She also held Aaliyah Edwards to 8 of 15 shooting from the floor and just one offensive rebound.

As for Kate Martin, she has been a reliable third scorer for Iowa all season, scoring in double figures in 29 games. Although 11 points doesn’t seem like an MVP performance, it was all about when some of those points came. After getting knocked it the nose late in third third quarter, Martin came out in the fourth quarter and delivered some tough shots. She hit a pair of tough turnaround jumpers and got the hoop for a driving layup with two minutes to play after an erratic possession looked dead in the water with just seconds left on the shot clock. Kate also finished the game with eight rebounds.

3. The “basketball is game of runs” saying stayed true

In the first half, UConn delivered the first big punch, with a 9-2 run capped off by a Paige Bueckers three-pointer to make it 28-16 Huskies. Iowa responded with their own 10-4 run to end the half and it gave them confidence going into the locker room knowing that they were only down six after a poor half of basketball.

After chipping the deficit away in the third quarter, the Hawkeyes went on short 5-0 and 6-0 runs early in the fourth quarter to take a 66-57 lead. Although UConn answered with a 12-4 push to cut the lead to 70-69 with 39.3 to play, Iowa was able to hang on for the win.

Basketball is a game of runs. It’s about when and how those runs materialize that changes the course of a game. For Iowa, their late first half push settled the game down, while their fourth quarter run gave them a lead they didn’t relinquish, despite a rally from the Huskies.

4. Iowa hit two very key stats in the win

You can’t always rely on trends to help you predict what is going to happen in the game, but it can give you a really good roadmap for what a team needs to do to secure a victory. Coming into the game, the Hawkeyes were 26-1 when outrebounding their opponents, while UConn was just 5-5 when getting outrebounded. On the other hand, the Huskies were 28-0 when outrebounding their opponents, so it looked like the rebounding battle was going to be monumental.

Iowa won on the glass 37-29, including 11-6 on the offensive glass, which led to a 10-3 advantage in second chance points. Caitlin Clark (9), Kate Martin (8), Syd Affolter (7) and Gabbie Marshall (5) led the way on the boards, while Hannah Stuelke held Aaliyah Edwards to just one offensive rebound. They are now 27-1 when winning the battle on the glass.

The other really intriguing stat that stood out to me was the fact that UConn came into the game with a 1-5 record when their opponents scored 70+ points. For a team like Iowa, 70 points has become the mark of an offensive struggle rather than a significant milestone. At the break, the Hawkeyes had just 26 points, which mean they were on track for just 52 points. That would have been right in the wheelhouse of the Huskies who were 32-0 when holding opponents to under 70 points. In the second half, Iowa scored 45 points, including 25 in the third quarter to eclipse the 70-point mark and it proved to be just enough.