Women Hawkeyes Advance to Elite Eight After Toppling Colorado

All it takes is a strong quarter to separate yourself from the competition. For the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s team, it turns out that a strong third quarter would wind being the difference between being a Sweet 16 team and finding themselves in the Elite Eight.

The two-seed Hawkeyes and Big Ten Champions got the best of six-seed Colorado, triumphing 87-77 to advance. There are a lot of things that need to go right for a team to not only make it to the Sweet 16 but the Elite Eight and beyond.

Caitlin Clark

Before we get into other aspects of the game, we have to focus on the strong performances for the Hawkeyes. For Caitlin Clark, it took a bit of an adjustment before the picture became clearer and things started going right.

Clark found her rhythm in the second half, dropping 18 points en route to a 31-point performance. Even more importantly for Clark, she helped the program shake the disappointment of the last two seasons in order to take the Hawkeyes to the Elite Eight in Seattle.

The previous two tournaments didn’t go as Iowa had hoped, with endings coming in the Sweet 16 and Round of 32. But because of the efforts of Clark and others, the Hawkeyes will have a shot to play their way into the Final Four for just the second time in the history of the school.

Clark, a First-Team All-American, was the focal point of Iowa’s outburst in the third quarter, where they outscored Colorado 25-13. Clark finished the night 11-for-22 from the field, including four 3-pointers, and a whopping eight assists. To illustrate just how important, she has been to Iowa, it is her 11th game of the year in which she scored at least 30 points.

Air Clark.

Q3 5:02 | Iowa 54, Colorado 42 @CaitlinClark22 x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/9dCK2N9Cp1

— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 25, 2023

The supporting cast

Of course, Clark was not the only important aspect to a happy ending for Iowa. Monika Czinano chipped in with 15 points of her own, including one of the key shots toward the end of the game that kept Colorado at bay.

Kate Martin added 16 points of her own with McKenna Warnock rounding out those who scored 10 or more points with 10 on the dot. For the game, Iowa shot a strong 54% of the field but the difference was kicking their game up to 59% throughout the second half.

Shooting that well makes it difficult for anyone to overcome. Creating open shots and gaining space is a difference-maker, as the Hawkeyes saw on the way to the huge win.

The path ahead

So, now that they have laid aside the Buffs, what is next for the Hawkeyes? Iowa will take on five-seed Louisville in the regional final to take place on Sunday. For the Hawkeyes, it is the fifth appearance in the Elite Eight. The team made a Final Four back in 1993 and this would be the program’s chance at a second appearance.

Though Iowa has the advantage of being a higher seed, that has proven to not mean much, especially in the last few years. Iowa has been in this position before only to fall to disappointing results in the previous two tournaments.

FINAL SCORE

#2 Iowa 87
#6 Colorado 77

The Hawkeyes will play for a spot in the Final Four on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/oO5y3KeMIi

— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) March 25, 2023

The recap

Though it is easy to focus on the third quarter as the difference-maker for Iowa, the real difference may have been a bit earlier. Colorado started strong, thanks mostly to Frida Formann. She put up 19 of her 21 points in the first half where her shooting was the decisive point for Colorado. When Iowa shut her down in the second half, baskets became much more difficult to come by.

Space became premium for Colorado, tough to find on a regular basis. Still, despite the third quarter outburst from Iowa, the end was very much in doubt. That is especially true when Colorado chipped away at the lead, pulling to within six on a Quay Miller 3-pointer with 4:16 to go and making it a four-point difference with just 1:40 to go.

That said, with about 1:10 left in the game, Czinano added a decisive basket in the paint to keep the distance. Iowa also managed to make seven free throws in just the final minute of the game alone.

Clark, in the end, wound up being the difference. She managed to start an 11-0 run for Iowa, putting the Hawkeyes up a dozen before Colorado finally called a timeout to stop the bleeding. That lead grew to 15 and Colorado would spend the rest of the game trying to play catchup.

Now the Cardinals await. Iowa will be the favorite in that matchup but that won’t matter. The weight of just the second Final Four appearance in program history will loom large. Can the Hawkeyes continue their magical run and bring the school into rarified air?

#HAWKEYES WIN!!! #Iowa beats Colorado and marches on to the Elite 8!!! pic.twitter.com/uzQDPYjmR8

— Iowa Hawkeyes on SR (@SRHawkeyes) March 25, 2023

Credits on Featured Image: MGoBlog, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons