Iowa women’s basketball will ‘really need’ McKenna Warnock. She showed why against Wisconsin

IOWA CITY — McKenna Warnock was not thrilled with every aspect of her game Wednesday against Wisconsin.

“She’s disappointed in her free throws,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “That's what she was talking to me about in there.”

But aside from going 1-of-3 from the line, Warnock had an impressive performance as the seventh-ranked Hawkeyes (21-5, 13-2) eased past Wisconsin (8-19, 3-12), 91-61.

“McKenna played really well,” Bluder said.

The senior forward scored 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting and had four assists, three rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.

Aside from steals, none of those numbers were team-highs Wednesday.

But her contributions were especially significant considering Bluder and the Hawkeyes will “really need” Warnock as postseason play looms.

“McKenna is just blue collar,” Bluder said. “She just does whatever we need her to do, whoever we need to guard. … She never loses her composure out there. She’s levelheaded.”

It was the most points Warnock has scored since she missed action earlier this year with a rib-cage injury. Her seven field goals matched her season-high.

As usual, guard Caitlin Clark and center Monika Czinano had starring roles for the Hawkeyes, scoring 24 and 19 points respectively and combining to shoot 74 percent from the field.

Clark also had eight assists and three turnovers. They each had six rebounds.

They combined to shoot 17-for-23 and were the only players to have a better plus/minus than Warnock.

Cedar Rapids native Hannah Stuelke had a team-high seven rebounds and shot 3-of-4 from the field. Bluder went out of her way in the postgame news conference to bring up Stuelke’s 3-for-3 night from the free-throw line, too.

The Hawkeyes as a team shot 64 percent from the field and had a 48-14 advantage in points in the paint.

Iowa’s defense, meanwhile, held the Badgers to .871 points per possession and 41-percent shooting.

Iowa had firm control of the game for most of the night, but not all of it.

Iowa had a quiet start to the night, falling into a 12-5 deficit. But then the Hawkeyes’ fortunes changed quickly, finishing the quarter on a 21-5 run.

“Nobody panicked,” Bluder said. “Nobody got worried or anything like that. It’s just like, ‘OK, let’s get to work.’”

Iowa, with the help of 83-percent shooting in the second quarter, expanded its lead to 20 by halftime.

The rout gave Bluder the opportunity to clear her bench for the second consecutive game.

“It's so fun to see them get in, get their time and get to shine in front of all the fans at Carver,” Czinano said.

Wednesday night’s outcome — Iowa’s ninth 20-plus-point win of 2022-23 — was far from a surprise.

The Hawkeyes had rattled off 26 consecutive wins in the series heading into Wednesday’s game. When Iowa last lost to Wisconsin, George W. Bush was president and Clark had celebrated her fifth birthday a few weeks earlier.

The Hawkeyes will next head to Nebraska (14-11, 6-8) Saturday at 1 p.m. in the first of a three-game stretch that will determine the Big Ten regular-season title and conference tournament seeding.

“We’re really not worried about that,” Bluder said of Big Ten tournament seeding. “We’re worried about beating the Cornhuskers on Saturday.”

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