Iowa women's basketball returned to action for the first time in 10 days on Thursday evening, hosting #23 Northwestern in a game between teams loitering near the top of the Big Ten standings. Unfortunately of the two, the Wildcats look more likely to be sticking near the top of the standings than the Hawkeyes. A ghastly number of turnovers (23!) doomed Iowa's efforts to split the season series with Northwestern and left them at 9-4 overall, but 5-4 in league play, in 8th place.
As has often been the case this season, Iowa started slowly. They gave up a 14-5 run in the first quarter that allowed Northwestern to grab a 19-11 lead. Iowa cut the deficit in half to 21-16 at the end of the quarter, but the second quarter was more of the same. The Wildcats maintained a lead between three and six points for most of the quarter, answering Iowa make for make (or miss for miss as was often the case). Iowa entered halftime trailing 33-29 and in need of a spark.
Enter: Caitlin Clark, freshman superstar. After maybe the quietest half of her young Iowa career -- she had just two points and two assists in the first half, due in part to two fouls she picked up -- she exploded in the third quarter for 14 points. After being bottled by effectively by Northwestern's very good guards in the first half (and for most of the first game these teams played in Evanston a few weeks back), she found some freedom in the third, swishing long-range threes (including one from the beak of the mid-court Herky logo) and cutting through the lane for a pair of layups as well. She helped fuel a big Iowa comeback; they used a 13-0 run to surge to a 42-35 lead. Their lead got as big as nine on a few occasions, but it did not last. Northwestern ended the quarter on a 14-6 run and took a 57-56 lead into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, Iowa couldn't maintain control of the game in the fourth quarter. The teams traded leads (and buckets) in the first half of the quarter, but Iowa's last lead was at 72-71 after a Caitlin Clark made 3. The Wildcats scored the next five points in a row and never relinquished the lead. The dagger came from a Lindsey Pulliam 3 that gave Northwestern a 79-73 lead with 90 seconds to go. Iowa simply couldn't get enough stops (or made baskets) to claw their way back from that point.
Not that Northwestern didn't give them a few opportunities thanks to missed free throws. The Wildcats made just 9/16 free throws in the final two minutes (there was a lot of fouling as Iowa tried to extend the game). In fact, Northwestern's free throw shooting was a key reason the game was as close as it was. They made just 17/34 free throws for the game (50%) and that figure was improved by the six free throws that Pulliam made in the final minutes. She ended up going 12/16 at the line; non-Pulliam Wildcats went just 5/18 in the game. At one point Northwestern was actually shooting better from 3-point range than they were from the free throw line... and they weren't shooting a particularly blistering rate from deep, either.
So what killed Iowa in this game? Turnovers, turnovers, and more turnovers. Iowa had a stupefying 23 turnovers in the game, which led to 28 (!) Northwestern points. In addition to the easy buckets Northwestern scored off turnovers (lots of transition buckets), those turnovers also killed Iowa possessions and prevented Iowa from getting shots off or drawing fouls. Which was unfortunate, because when Iowa could actually get a shot off in this game, they shot the ball pretty well -- 58% (34/59) from the floor. (They were not very productive from deep, though, going just 8/25 from behind the arc.) The turnovers were a mix of takeaways (Northwestern's defense making smart plays to intercept passes and force Iowa into bad decisions) and giveaways (brain farts from Iowa), but the end result was the same: a dead Iowa possession.
Northwestern has three of the conference's leaders in steals so their defense is obviously due some credit -- they did an excellent job of anticipating Iowa's passes and were effective at denying entry passes and pressuring Iowa's ball-handlers. That said, it's not as if this is the first game that turnovers have been a big problem for this Iowa team. They're simply too sloppy with the ball. It cost them in other games and it cost them again here. I lost count of how many cross-court passes Iowa tried in half-court passes that were snatched out of the air by Northwestern players. You have to realize Northwestern is waiting on those passes and make adjustments. Likewise, they need to be more sure-handed with the ball -- too many turnovers were a result of players carrying the ball loosely, be it after a rebound, taking the ball up court, or dribbling in the half court. Loose balls are catnip for a team with active defenders like Northwestern.
It's a shame, too, because the turnovers (as well as some more shaky defense from the Hawkeyes) wasted a brilliant performance from Monika Czinano. She finished with a career-high 34 points while shooting a preposterous-seeming 17/19 from the floor and added 11 rebounds as well. And even that 17/19 figure undersells how good she was; she set a Big Ten record by making her first 15 attempts (breaking a mark held by, among others, former Iowa legend Megan Gustafson, who had made 13/13 field goals to start a game before). She was unstoppable in the low post, using excellent positioning, strength, and footwork to rack up easy finish after easy finish near the basket. She also benefited from plenty of great passes from her teammates, including several laser-like assists from Clark. Just a really, really superb game from Czinano, who has done a better job of replacing a lot of Gustafson's production down low than anyone ever could have imagined a few years ago. The only negative part of her game here? She did have six turnovers; if she didn't get the ball up for a shot, there was a decent chance it was getting slapped away by a Northwestern player and taken the other way.
Clark ended up with 23 points, 8 assists, and 2 rebounds -- pretty good final numbers after starting with just two points and two assists in the first 20 minutes of the game. She also had just three turnovers, which was pretty impressive, given the defensive strength of Northwestern's guards and the ballhandling problems other Iowa players had in this game. She ended up 8/16 from the floor and 4/12 from deep, although that included several misses from deep late during Iowa's failed comeback bid. She's certainly been sharper this season, but the fact that a 23-8 game from her counts as just an "okay" game really speaks to her overall brilliance and how spoiled we've been by her play so far.
Unfortunately, Clark and Czinano didn't get much help from the rest of the Hawkeyes in this game. Kate Martin was the only other Iowa player in double figures, with 10, but she scored eight of her points in the first half. McKenna Warnock had a game-high 14 rebounds and seven assists -- but she also had just one point on 0/3 shooting from the floor, as well as six turnovers. Kind of a strange game for her. She did some things very well, but struggled badly in some other areas. Clark, Czinano, and Martin were the only Hawkeye players to make two or more field goals in the game. The Iowa bench combined for nine points and Iowa's other starter, Gabbie Marshall, had three points on 1/6 shooting. Iowa needed a few other scoring options in this game but unfortunately couldn't find them.
NEXT: It doesn't get any easier for Iowa -- they play at #14 Ohio State (10-1, 6-1 B1G) on Thursday, February 4 (tip-off and TV TBA) and host #16 Indiana (9-4, 7-2 B1G) on Sunday, February 7 (1 PM Central, ESPN2).
