Iowa Women’s Basketball Plays for a National Title

The Hawkeyes are two wins from a national title. If they can beat Colorado Friday night and Louisville or Ole Miss in Seattle Sunday, it would be the first trip to a national championship game in women’s basketball program history. It would also put this team among the most popular Iowa sports teams in history, putting it up there with the 2015 football Hawkeyes and the 1980 men’s Final Four team.

It’s a close game with Iowa leading 63-61 at the break. The second half could be a barnburner.

Caitlin Clark has drilled some big free throws for the Hawkeyes, bringing her point total to 39. That puts her on the list of players with the most points in a national semifinal, joining legendary names like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson.

She was one of the big reasons Iowa jumped from No. 14 to No. 10 in the most recent AP poll, despite some early losses to good teams. The Hawkeyes won nine of their last 10 games to finish the season. Their swagger and attacking style has the country taking notice.

This team is led by a pair of superstars in Clark and Aliyah Boston. Both are terrific in different ways, with Clark excelling from the perimeter and Boston dominating inside the paint. They have been key cogs in a Hawkeye offense that has been very difficult to defend.

The Hawkeyes swung for the fences in the third quarter to take a 64-53 lead into the fourth. They made it 71-68 with 1:42 left and South Carolina couldn’t respond. The Gamecocks were just 2 of 10 from 3-point range, and the loss ended their long-running streak of 42 straight wins.

Those 42 victories included a win over No. 3 Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament. That victory was a huge statement about the team’s potential to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. That was a much better performance than the team showed against Kansas State, UConn and NC State in the early rounds.

This is the first time the Hawkeyes have gotten this far in the tournament since 1993. That team lost to Stanford in the national semis. The Big Ten’s top three teams were all in the final four that year.

Iowa fans flocked to the Pentacrest Friday evening to show their support for the team. UI Athletic Director Gary Barta estimated 10,000 people showed up. The fans were pumped up by speeches from head coach Lisa Bluder and junior guard Caitlin Clark.

The 2022-23 schedule was released Wednesday and it will be a tough test for the Hawkeyes, who will play five league teams twice and eight of them once. The schedule includes home games against Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers, as well as road games at Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Iowa will also visit Northwestern and Penn State.