Iowa women’s basketball wrapped up its regular season on Saturday night by defeating the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 83-75, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for its 15th win of the season.

Iowa ends the regular season 15-8 overall and 10-8 in the Big Ten, good for the six-seed in the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hawkeyes came out strong in the first quarter, racing to a 7-0 lead before the Huskers could get their first basket of the game. But Nebraska gained steam throughout the first 10 minutes, and overtook the lead by the end of the first quarter, 20-18.

The Hawkeyes and Cornhuskers stayed evenly matched throughout the second quarter, but Iowa went on a four minute scoring drought to end the half to give the Cornhuskers the lead. After 20 minutes, Nebraska held the lead, 37-34.

Freshman point guard Caitlin Clark opened the scoring in the second half, but the Cornhuskers extended their lead to 44-38 at the eight-minute mark of the third quarter.

Iowa battled back and tied the game at 46 off of three free throws sophomore forward McKenna Warnock, and took its first lead of the quarter through a layup from freshman center Sharon Goodman.

But Nebraska took the lead again near the end of the third quarter, and Iowa went into the last ten minutes of the game down, 60-58.

Iowa found its fire in the fourth quarter, tying the game early on a layup from Warnock and taking a 62-60 lead with a jumper from Clark.

The Hawkeyes capitalized for a 7-0 run, and took an eight-point lead, 74-66, at the five-minute timeout in the fourth quarter.  While the Cornhuskers threatened, bringing their deficit to only five points with one minute left, Clark hit a three-point shot from the Tigerhawk to extend Iowa’s lead back to eight points. And the Hawkeyes were able to maintain their eight-point lead, beating the Huskers, 83-75

Iowa travels to Indianapolis next week for the Big Ten Tournament and will take on the 11th-seeded Purdue Wednesday night.

Honoring seniors

Postgame, Iowa’s two seniors — Alexis Sevillian and Zion Sanders — were honored for their contributions to the program. Sanders and Sevillian are both captains for the 2020-21 season, and Sevillian is a fifth-year senior and two-year captain for the Hawkeyes.

Cook returns to Carver-Hawkeye Arena 

After testing positive for COVID-19 on Feb. 25, junior guard Logan Cook returned to the sidelines for the Hawkeyes during Saturday’s game. Cook did not dress for the game, and needs to be out at least 17 days from when she first tested positive and pass health screenings before she returns to the court, per Big Ten protocols.

Clark eclipses 600 points

With her fourth point on Saturday, Clark became the first freshman and fifth Hawkeye in Iowa women’s basketball program history to record 600 points in a season on Saturday night.

She ended the game with 35 points and eight rebounds and holds 631 points on the season.