INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark scored 41 points in Iowa women’s basketball’s Big Ten Tournament Semifinal victory over Nebraska on Saturday. But her most valiant effort of the night may have been an attempt to get a lodged ball off the back of the hoop.

When her layup attempt with five minutes left in the game got the ball stuck between the hoop and the backboard, Clark tried to jump and dislodge the ball herself twice.

The attempts, ultimately, failed. A Gainbridge Fieldhouse worker used the handle of his floor mopper to force the ball out of its place. 

Postgame, Clark joked with reporters that if she hit the ball in the first time, it was going to count for two points.

“Here’s the thing,” Clark said. “The ball was stuck very hard. I hit it the first time, I literally had it … But no, I hit it the first time, it was just stuck very hard. So, I thought I would try again, and my knee didn’t really quite work as I wanted it to. But no, it was all funny.”

Clark scored nearly half of the Hawkeyes’ points in their 83-66 win over Nebraska on Saturday. 

The sophomore point guard eclipsed 40 points for the fourth time in the 2021-22 season, and came five points away from her career-high of 46. 

But Clark thrives on a conference and national stage, head coach Lisa Bluder said.

“Caitlin was just Caitlin tonight,” Bluder said postgame. “You know, that’s pretty fun. She’s a special player and she just continues to show on this — she loves this kind of stage and playing out in front of this kind of environment.”

Clark made 13 of her 27 attempts from the field on Friday night, and went 5-of-13 from 3-point range. She also went to the free throw line 12 times, making 10 of her shots.

In the Hawkeyes’ two regular season meetings with the Cornhuskers, Clark scored 31 points apiece. 

“Caitlin is a really good player, everyone knows that,” Nebraska guard Sam Haiby said postgame. “I just think we just need to be more diligent on the shots we’re giving her. We made it pretty easy for her tonight in some aspects of the game. So, we just gotta be more diligent on the ball and how we’re defending her.”

While the Hawkeye guard was nearly unstoppable offensively on Friday night, Clark showed her Achilles’ heel: turnovers. 

Clark turned the ball over five times in the first ten minutes of the game, and finished the night with nine of the Hawkeyes’ 13 total turnovers.

Nebraska capitalized on Iowa’s mishandling of the ball, scoring 18 points off turnovers on Friday.

“I think she’s a little geeked to start out,” Bluder said. “I mean, she’s just a little hyper. You know, she loves playing this game and especially the Big Ten Tournament. So, I definitely have to calm her down before the game and try to slow her down a little bit for the game. I think she had six turnovers in the first half, which is way too many.”

Clark and the Hawkeyes advanced to the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game with its victory over Nebraska. The second-seeded Hawkeyes will take on the fifth-seeded Hoosiers on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.