Another game, another satisfied, entertained Iowa women’s basketball crowd of 15,000

IOWA CITY — The Carver-Hawkeye Arena parking lots were packed two hours before Saturday’s 1 p.m. Nebraska-Iowa women’s basketball game.

It wasn’t a tailgate-type day, January in Iowa and all. So some fans sat in their cars and ate lunch, waiting for 11:30 a.m., when the doors of the gym were opened to the sellout gathering of 14,998.

The concourse soon would be flooded with fans. If you wanted a Carver ice cream cone as hundreds did, you needed the voice of Sherlock Holmes’ advice to Dr. Watson in your head.

“Patience is a virtue, Watson. You should learn to cultivate it.”

Be it waiting to get inside the arena, waiting for a sweet treat, and waiting for Iowa to play like Iowa in this game, patience was rewarded. This was another of the now-dwindling days in which this senior-laden No. 5-ranked Hawkeyes team did a lot to entertain and wow fans of the game and these particular women.

Early in the third quarter with Iowa up 38-34, Hawkeye senior guard Molly Davis tripped over a Husker defender and went sliding while teammate Kate Martin was missing a 3-pointer. While lying on her back, Davis caught the carom in the air and immediately whipped a bounce pass back to Martin.

Iowa scored on the possession, the fans went wild, and the Hawkeyes went on to a 92-73 win.

These are the good old days, and everyone who has season tickets or wrangles a seat in Carver for one game knows it.

This was another such day. Sure, the first half was ragged and unremarkable. Iowa scored the last nine points for a 36-31 lead at the break, punctuated by a Caitlin Clark 3-pointer with 2.8 seconds left.

Clark had a pedestrian first half by her stratospheric standards. She had just seven points before that 3-pointer closed the half.

Naturally, she made six second-half 3s, and sank three free throws after getting fouled on another bomb.

Clark scored 28 points in the second half to finish with 38. Twenty-eight points in a half. That’s more points than any other player in the nation averages per game.

Her splashing the ball through the net is always great fun, but Clark’s show has other features. The competitor in her was a bit surly at times in the first half when things weren’t sailing along. Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder removed Clark from the game with 2:13 left in the first quarter and gave her a suggestion.

“My message is ‘Let me do the talking to the officials,’” Bluder said. “That’s my job, so I just want to do my job.”

Peak Clark is when she’s knocking down two 3-pointers in 48 seconds or less, as she did three times in the second half. It’s also when she’s showing frustration with officiating and then taking it out on the opponent.

While she had the ball midway through the third quarter, Clark let the officials know she thought she’d been fouled. She played through the no-call, driving to the hoop for a score.

What’s funny is that as Iowa’s other players in the game stand on the court as they wait for a timeout to end, Clark almost always is talking and laughing with officials.

“I have a great relationship with a lot of officials,” she said after the game. “They love me and we love talking, but I’m feisty and competitive. They know I think they do a great job reffing.”

Does she think she sees the game better than them?

“I can answer that,” Bluder interjected. “One hundred percent.”

“It’s all fun at the end of the day,” Clark said. She said she thrives on Bluder getting on her.

“I never want to stop being coached,” she said. “I never want to stop being told what’s right, what’s wrong.”

After all Iowa’s games — with the exception of last Sunday’s at Ohio State when she got knocked down during a crowd storm — Clark approaches the children who hover near her path to the locker room, hoping to get an autograph or high-five from her.

“I never take any moment for granted no matter where we’re playing at, whether it’s at home, whether it’s on the road,” she said. “All the people that want to come see us, and a lot of people spend a lot of time and money to be able to come and watch our team play for two hours.

“So we always want to go out there and give it your best, give them a little show, give them something to smile about, make it fun. Because it’s probably a memory people are going to remember for the rest of their lives.”

These are the good old days, these are the good old days.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com