‘Shark’-like Iowa women’s basketball team takes 6-game win streak to Northwestern

Iowa has beaten 3 straight Big Ten teams by 25-plus, the first time that has happened since 1990

Jan. 27, 2022 2:17 pm, Updated: Jan. 27, 2022 3:45 pm

Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark (22) finds a cutter with a pass during an 82-56 win over Illinois on Sunday. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

IOWA CITY — There are sharks, Lisa Bluder told her team. And there are goldfish.

Go be sharks.

“Goldfish just kind of wait around,” Bluder said. “Sharks attack. And that’s the mentality I want this team to keep.”

You have to go back a long way — February 1990 — to find the last time that Iowa had blasted three consecutive Big Ten women’s basketball opponents by 25 points or more.

But that’s where the 23rd-ranked Hawkeyes (13-4 overall, 7-1 Big Ten) are, after back-to-back-to-back humblings of Minnesota (105-49), Illinois (82-56) and Penn State (107-79).

They take a six-game winning streak into their game Friday at Northwestern (11-7, 3-4). Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Welsh-Ryan Arena in Evanston, Ill.

The Wildcats handed Iowa its last defeat, 77-69 at Iowa City on Jan. 6.

“They’ve had our number,” sophomore Caitlin Clark said. “I’m 0-3 against them. We want to get them back on their home floor.

“When we played them last time, we had just played Evansville without Monika (Czinano) and McKenna (Warnock). We should have beaten them. I think we were the better team.”

Neither team is what it was three weeks ago.

Northwestern has lost four of its last five games, all of its last three.

“Either they’re struggling, or they’re going to be mad as a hornet,” Bluder said. “I don’t know which it’s going to be.”

Then there’s Iowa.

Fueled by Clark, the Hawkeyes are rolling. They’re sharks.

In the current win streak, Clark has posted two triple-doubles. Tuesday against Penn State, she distributed a Big Ten-record 18 assists to go with 20 points.

“There aren’t a lot of words that can describe what’s she’s doing, what she’s accomplishing,” Bluder said.

Iowa registered 37 assists in its 43 field goals at Happy Valley. Warnock scored a career-high 25 points.

“Unselfish basketball is pretty basketball, and I love pretty basketball,” Bluder said.

Northwestern’s Veronica Burton is averaging 16.9 points per game, and is one of the nation’s top defensive players. She’ll be in the middle of the Wildcats’ “blizzard” defense.

“As far as X’s and O’s, Northwestern’s defense is right up there,” Clark said.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com