The second-seeded Iowa women’s basketball team advanced to the semifinal stage of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday with a 95-62 quarterfinal win over Penn State at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Caitlin Clark led the Hawkeyes, finishing with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Guards Sydney Affolter and Gabbie Marshall were Iowa’s next leading scorers with 18 and 15, respectively.
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The seventh-seeded Nittany Lions, coming off of an 80-56 win over the 10th-seeded Wisconsin Badgers on Thursday, were led by guard Leilani Kapinus, who finished with 19 points and five rebounds.
Affolter started over Molly Davis after the latter was injured in Iowa’s last regular-season game, a 93-83 win against No. 2 Ohio State on March 3.
After winning the toss, Kate Martin got the Hawkeyes started early with a three-pointer in the first 10 seconds of action. Martin blocked Kapinus’ layup attempt on the other end, and Affolter drained a wide-open three on Iowa’s second possession.
The Hawkeyes went on a 10-0 run following a pair of free throws and a layup from Hannah Stuelke, and Penn State head coach Carolyn Kieger called a timeout. Following the break, the Nittany Lions got on the board with a three-pointer from Kapinus. Later, Feuerbach picked forward Kylie Lavelle’s pass and found guard Gabbie Marshall open for three.
The Hawkeyes came up with another steal after Clark stripped Ciezki, and Feuerbach scored on a three of her own to make it 19-5 with 4:47 remaining.
The Nittany Lions responded by scoring on their next four possessions, bringing the score to 24-13 with less than two minutes remaining. Clark scored her first points of the game on a free throw after guard Moriah Murray fouled her on a three-point attempt.
Marshall recorded her second steal of the game, stripping Ciezki again, and Martin hit a jumper with five seconds remaining to give Iowa an 18-point lead heading into the second quarter.
Kapinus got the Nittany Lions started in the second after hitting a pair of free throws after a foul by Marshall, Penn State’s first free throw attempts. Coach Kieger’s team followed this up with a jumper from guard Makenna Marisa.
Iowa went scoreless for over five minutes before Clark hit a deep jumper, her first field goal of the game. Two possessions later, Ashley Owusu made a layup and drew the and-one with a foul by forward Addison O’Grady. The former All-Big Ten player at Maryland converted on her free throw attempt to make it a three-point play.
Later, the Hawkeyes scored from the free-throw line following two attempts from Clark. After Alli Campbell missed a jumper on the next possession, Marshall hit her second three-pointer of the game off an assist from Clark.
Guard Taylor McCabe missed on a last-second three-pointer, and Iowa entered halftime up big, 46-26.
Second half success
Penn State started the second half with a three from Kapinus, which was followed up with a three-pointer from Marshall on the other end. Later, the Nittany Lions hit two back-to-back threes off attempts from Murray and Ciezki.
Ciezki hit a jumper with 5:15 remaining to give Penn State a 7-0 run, and head coach Lisa Bluder called the Hawkeyes’ first timeout of the second half. Two possessions later, Iowa stopped Penn State’s lead with a three from McCabe, and the sophomore followed it up with another one on the Hawkeyes’ next possession.
Penn State went on a 7-5 run following the pair of threes from McCabe, and Iowa began the fourth quarter up 65-48.
Clark opened the quarter by missing a pair of three-pointers. Two possessions later, she hit her first three of the game after going unsuccessful on her first 11 attempts. This would be Clark’s 163rd made three-pointer of the season, passing former Davidson guard Stephen Curry with the most three-pointers made in a season in NCAA history.
Penn State went scoreless for over four minutes before a jumper from Owusu made it 51-75. After, the Hawkeyes kept extending their lead with back-to-back threes from Affolter and Marshall.
McCabe hit a three with roughly three minutes remaining. She followed this up by hitting another one with 1:42 remaining, her fourth of the game.
Iowa would hold on to the ball as time expired and win it 95-62.
Up next
The Hawkeyes will advance tomorrow to play the winner of No. 3 seed Indiana versus No.6 seed Michigan.