Iowa-Minnesota women’s basketball: Reset from 105-49 to 0-0

IOWA CITY — Fifty-six points. That’s how bad Iowa beat Minnesota in their last women’s basketball go-round, 19 days ago.

Fifty-six points. And none of them carry over into the rematch.

“This is one that makes you nervous,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “Because of what happened last time, you think ‘oh, this one’s in the bag.’

“But every game is completely different.”

Last game, that was different all right. The Hawkeyes broke it open with a 37-point third quarter, allowed just three points in the fourth and blistered the Gophers, 105-49, at Williams Arena.

They meet again, with a clean 0-0 slate, Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m.

“It’s definitely a team that we can’t take lightly,” sophomore guard Caitlin Clark said.

Neither team is the same as it was Jan. 20, which Iowa recorded its most lopsided Big Ten win in program history. The 25th-ranked Hawkeyes (15-6 overall, 9-3 Big Ten) are operating with a roster of seven players, maybe eight.

Bluder said Tuesday that Gabbie Marshall is a possible return to the active roster. She missed games at Wisconsin and at Michigan.

McKenna Warnock, Logan Cook and A.J. Ediger remain inactive.

“Gabbie is doing better. I’m excited to see what she can do in practice (Tuesday),” Bluder said.

If there is a silver lining in the shortened roster, it has been the emergence of freshman Sydney Affolter as a credible contributor.

“She’s done a great job,” Clark said. “You can see what kind of player she is. She does a lot of things well. She works and works and works. Once she gets comfortable, she’s going to have a tremendous career.”

Then there’s Clark.

The dynamo earned major national attention in the past week with games of 43 and 46 points last week, plus a triple-double, on her way to Big Ten player-of-the-week honors.

Included in the 46-point effort against Michigan (in a 98-90 loss) was a string of 3-pointers from even longer range than she is accustomed.

“I didn’t realize I was that deep until I saw it on TV,” Clark said. “The only reason I was shooting that deep was that we were down and we needed to take shots. Luckily they were falling.

“It’s definitely been a crazy few days (since). It’s good for me, and it’s good for the program.”

Since their drubbing to Iowa at Williams Arena, the Gophers (11-13, 4-8) have showed progress, winning two of five games and playing close in the other three.

“Maybe it’s addition by subtraction,” Bluder said in reference to Jasmine Powell’s departure from the team and entrance into the transfer portal. “They’ve been playing a lot better lately.”

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