MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The No. 3 and second-seeded Iowa women’s basketball team will take on the sixth-seeded Michigan Wolverines in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament tomorrow.
The tournament, hosted inside Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has already seen three of the top four seeds fall in the quarterfinals on Thursday:
- First-seeded Ohio State lost to Maryland
- Third-seeded Indiana lost to Michigan
- Fourth-seeded Michigan State lost to Nebraska
But the Hawkeyes outlasted the seventh-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions to advance behind five Hawkeyes in double-digit scoring. Caitlin Clark was cold, though, shooting just 5-of-19 from the field but still finishing with 24 points.
The Hawkeyes will face the Wolverines at roughly 3:30 p.m. tomorrow, the winner advancing to the championship game at 11 a.m. on Sunday to play either Maryland or Nebraska.
The Wolverines beat the Hoosiers, 69-56, on Thursday behind 30 points from guard Laila Phelia. Guard Lauren Hansen scored 16, and both Jordan Hobbs and Cameron Williams had 10.
Still, Iowa welcomed Michigan to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 15, the Hawkeyes scoring 106 to Michigan’s 89. But that whole game was overshadowed by Clark’s passing Kelsey Plum to become the NCAA Division I women’s basketball all-time leading scorer — en route to 49 points.
“I feel like the biggest thing for us is just staying true to who we are as a team and continuing to do the little things and chip away,” Phelia said. “Caitlin Clark — she’s a great player, so we all have to definitely tune in and help each other out on that.”
