Postgame comments on Sunday’s incident following Iowa-Ohio State women’s basketball game

The following are postgame comments — from the Associated Press — regarding Sunday’s collision between Caitlin Clark and an Ohio State fan after the Buckeyes’ 100-92 overtime victory over the second-ranked Hawkeyes:

Caitlin Clark:

“I was trying to exit the court as quickly as possible, so I started running and I was absolutely just hammered by somebody trying to run onto the court. Basically blindsided and, you know, kind of scary, could have caused a pretty serious injury to me and knocked the wind out of me.

“But luckily my teammates kind of picked me up and got me off the court. (Ohio State) AD (Gene Smith) already came and apologized to me, so I really appreciate that.”

Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder:

“It’s unfortunate the game ended that way and Caitlin gets taken out on the floor. Gets some inappropriate words yelled at her by fans, by students. That just should not happen.

“Our players should be safe, they should be able to walk off the floor. That’s very disappointing.”

Ohio State Coach Kevin McGuff

“(Clark) has such a spectacular performance today, and she’s such a great player and that should never happen. And so I feel really badly about it and hopefully it doesn’t affect her moving forward. But that is extremely unfortunate.”

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com