The No. 2 Iowa women’s basketball team pounded the Wisconsin Badgers, 96-50, in a home bout inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Tuesday night.

After a dominant 84-57 win over then-No. 14 Indiana on Jan. 13 that saw Caitlin Clark post 30 points and 11 assists, she tonight scored 32 on 8-of-18 from the field, 6-of-14 from deep, and a whopping 10-of-10 from the free throw line.

Following her was guard Kate Martin with 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists and fellow guard Sydney Affolter with 12 on an impressive 3-of-3 from the field, 1-of-1 from deep, and 5-of-6 from the free throw line in addition to six boards and four assists.

“Kate Martin continues to play like a pro,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said, after which Clark added “Draft her” in allusion to the upcoming WNBA Draft. “She’s really playing well, strong, and confident, not forcing stuff … just playing her game.”

The Hawkeyes had quite an efficient night on both ends of the floor. 

They shot 48 percent from the field, 41 percent from deep, and 88 percent from the free throw line and notched 25 assists on just 14 turnovers. And active defense against a turnover-prone Badgers offense paved the way for 42 points off of turnovers in the night.

“We’re just so much harder to guard when everybody’s contributing like that,” Bluder said. “Caitlin’s always going to be our leading scorer — that’s OK. That’s alright right. But … tonight, we had 25 assists, and she had five of them. Twenty other assists by other people on this basketball team. That’s really good team basketball.”

The Hawkeyes scored 38 bench points to the Badgers’ four.

“I really believe this is the strongest bench we’ve had in a long time,” Bluder said. “I have so much confidence going to our bench. I really do. Hannah [Stuelke] didn’t play tonight, and we’re still able to win by 40 points. It’s pretty impressive, so I’m very, very happy with the way our bench is performing.”

Iowa forward Hannah Stuelke was listed as questionable before tip, and center Sharon Goodman started in her stead to match up against Wisconsin forward and frequent block party host Serah Williams in the paint.

Stuelke spent the game sitting at the end of the bench, a sleeve again on her left knee, which Bluder attributed to a tweak in practice, although she added that the Cedar Rapids local is “doing very well.”

This one started a lot slower than most Hawkeye games do, the Badgers getting out to a 6-0 lead and giving the Hawkeyes a blow-for-blow battle even as a Molly Davis floater and Martin three got Iowa on the board.

And with Iowa double-teaming Williams — who is leading Wisconsin with 16.5 points per game — each time the Badgers found her for a post entry, that left Badger guard Sania Copeland open for a pair of threes.

Clark had one of her less efficient first quarters of the year by her standards, shooting 2-of-6 from the field and missing three of her four threes in addition to a poor turnover, but her three and layup in the final two minutes helped Iowa to a 19-15 lead moving into the second.

And things got a little chippy to open the next quarter.

Clark fell to the ground off-ball amid the Badgers’ physical defensive scheme and exchanged words with both the Wisconsin bench and the nearby official as Hawkeye fans voiced their discontent.

“I thought Wisconsin was very physical with us; I thought they were physical in the paint when we got into the paint,” Clark said, noting it’s not quite a rivalry between the two schools. “Every game that we play people have circled on their calendar because of what we’ve been able to do over the past few years … Yeah, it was physical, but that’s just Big Ten basketball, so you better be ready for it.”

Soon after, she took a hard fall to the floor upon being undercut in mid-air by Wisconsin forward Halle Douglass, but she popped up — briefly holding her elbow — to hit both free throws and then a three to force a Badger timeout.

That’s not to mention Clark passed Brittney Griner to become the fourth all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history shortly before the halfway mark of the quarter.

A pair of Hawkeye steals, a Davis and-one, and a Kylie Feuerbach three later and Iowa held a comfortable double-digit lead, riding it out to the quarter’s end to enter the second half up 46-30.

All smiles

A pair of Clark threes from the top of the key got the Iowa offense — and the Carver crowd — awake and rolling in the third quarter, even as Wisconsin did not go away despite not quite cutting into the Hawkeye lead either.

Iowa held a 17-point advantage coming out of the media timeout at the halfway mark of the third, and a near-perfect 5-of-6 shooting performance from the charity stripe from Affolter put the Hawkeyes up 20 and then 23 with a Martin trey-ball.

“I thought Syd just worked so hard again,” Bluder said. “I mean, that girl just hustles.”

Iowa guard Gabbie Marshall got on the board with a three from the left wing to make a 15-2 Hawkeye run over four minutes that forced a Badger timeout and ultimately brought the Black and Gold to a 76-44 advantage at quarter’s end — and at which the Hawkeyes shared smiles walking toward the huddle.

Clark came out of the game halfway through a rather uneventful fourth quarter, and Bluder then began to shuffle her backups in to carry the lead to the final buzzer.

Up next

The Hawkeyes, now 18-1, will travel to Columbus, Ohio, for another tough battle in the No. 18 Ohio State Buckeyes on Jan. 21.

The Buckeyes are 13-3 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten and are set to take on the Maryland Terrapins in College Park, Maryland, on Wednesday before the Hawkeyes come to their home.

“I know [the Buckeyes] have that game circled,” Bluder said. “It’s going to be a really, really tough challenge, but we’re up for it. We’re excited about the opportunity to prepare and get ready for it.”