There’s a saying that goes around the college basketball world every March: Survive and advance.

And the No. 7 Iowa women’s basketball team showed it is capable of that mentality in its buzzer-beating victory over No. 2 Indiana on Sunday.

Technically, the survive and advance mentality didn’t apply to Iowa’s game on Sunday — the Hawkeyes and Hoosiers were both going to advance to the Big Ten Tournament regardless of the score. But the Hawkeyes played like it was, and it felt like something that would come out of a March Madness game.

“Indiana is a No. 1 seed; they haven’t lost since December,” head coach Lisa Bluder said postgame. “They are a No. 1 seed by far in the NCAA Tournament. So, it just shows these women what we can do, and that’s what I’m the most happy about. It just proved to them what we can do together.”

Iowa took down Indiana at the last second, 86-85, to beat the Big Ten regular season champion Hoosiers.

“We told the team, ‘We can’t be the Big Ten champs, but we can beat the Big Ten champs,’ and that’s what we wanted to do today,” Bluder said.

Down two points to Indiana with 1.5 seconds left, senior guard Kate Martin inbounded the ball to junior guard and national player of the year candidate Caitlin Clark, who got the 3-pointer off before the buzzer.

That play came straight from the playbook of the 2022 WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces, Bluder said.

But Clark wasn’t the first option. She wasn’t even the second. The Hawkeyes wanted to go for the easy two-point shot and the tie, getting the ball to senior McKenna Warnock or Monika Czinano as close to the rim as possible.

But neither Czinano or Warnock were open, so it went to Clark.

“When I come into the gym and shoot by myself, those are the situations you dream up and want to be in,” Clark said. “I’m lucky enough to be able to do a first team in front of 15,000 people that want to come and scream about it.”

While Clark and her teammates ran around celebrating on the court, Bluder sat back in her chair on the bench, whispering “a quick thank you to God.”

“It was one of those things that you just dream about for her to make that shot,” Bluder said. “She’s made so many of them in practice like that. That’s truly what stories are made about, dreams are made about, so I’m just so thankful, honestly.”

Iowa’s versatility in that moment, with the home-court crowd and last-second pressure against the No. 2 team in the nation, showed the Hawkeyes have the ability to make a run in March.

First up is the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament in Minneapolis. The Hawkeyes clinched the No. 2 seed and will face the winner of Purdue-Wisconsin on Friday at 5:30 p.m. at the Target Center.

The Hawkeyes have made the conference championship game each of the past two seasons — Iowa lost to Maryland in 2021, but took down Indiana in 2022 for the Big Ten Tournament Championship.

Then comes the NCAA Tournament. Iowa is all but guaranteed a top-4 hosting seed no matter the outcome of the conference tournament.

“You kind of have to flip the switch when tournament time comes,” Czinano said. “The regular season doesn’t really matter anymore, as fun as it was.”

Before Sunday’s game, I was skeptical of Iowa’s ability to make a run in the conference and national tournament — Maryland and Indiana are two formidable teams just in the conference, and it takes a lot to stop them. Don’t even get me started about South Carolina, Utah, Stanford, or LSU.

But the Hawkeyes have now clinched victories over two No. 2 teams in the nation this season. And if they’ve done it before, they could do it again.

“This is just part of our story,” Bluder said. “We’re writing our own story, and this team is amazing. Honestly, you know, I feel like this is part of our growth.”