9:22 pm ET
Alexa PhilippouESPN
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- Covers women’s college basketball and WNBA.
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant.
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer.
Red-hot Iowa continued their Big Ten offensive by beating Indiana 5-seeded 74-67 in Sunday’s Big Ten Tournament Championship Game, helping the Hawkeyes to the regular season and conference tournament crowns for the first time in program history. .
Starting a seven-win streak at the NCAA Tournament, the Hawkeyes managed to do so thanks to a relatively quiet night with 2021 All-American second-team Caitlin Clark, who finished with 18 points and two assists. – Monica Chinano was practically unstoppable as a senior, scoring 30 points on 13 of 18 shots and 10 rebounds.
“I think she showed why she’s one of the best jobs in America,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said of Chinano. “She goes against another [Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes] … I just think Monica is so special on the inside and very, very talented in terms of her footwork, her hands, her ability to score under the basket. You saw it tonight, walking backwards.
“She’s a special kid and I’m very happy to have her in a Hawkeye jersey.”
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Iowa, the tournament’s runner-up, has now won the Big Ten tournament twice in four years (previously winning in 2019) and four times in the program’s history (also in 1997 and 2001).
“I think this team did a great job to really enjoy last Sunday. [winning a share of the conference regular-season title, alongside Ohio State] but at the same time leaving it behind,” said Clark, who lost 41 points in Saturday’s semi-finals against 6-seed Nebraska to help Iowa advance to the championship game. “And this Sunday I wanted to do it all. again, this time with confetti.”
Iowa has been through a season of mostly ups and downs, had to cancel several games early on due to COVID-19 issues, and fall out of the top 25 in January with a 7-4 record after losing to the Northwest at home. Two months before this game, Clark calls it a turning point.
“Right after that, we went to Nebraska and our season could have gone two ways,” Clarke said. “You could go there and hang your heads. But I think the most important thing was that we continued to fight no matter what. We won a big away victory there. night because it’s so hard.”
However, the Hawkeyes had to last in the league without two starting players, Gabby Marshall and McKenna Warnock, for several games. They went 16-3 after the Northwest loss, with both players only available in one of those losses.
“We needed stability at the start of the season,” Chinano said. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity, we’ve been sick with COVID, we’ve rescheduled a lot of games. We just needed it. And I think that now we are reaching our peak at the right time. We have returned this sequence. the team is fully engaged.”
Clark repeated the feelings.
“Even in the regular season game, we knew everything had to fall into place and we could be the regular season champions,” Clarke said. “And obviously coming here is a clean slate.”
Despite the loss, Indiana could still be in the top 16 by Monday. Michigan and Maryland were also named to the final list of the top 16 NCAA Division I women’s basketball committees last week, although both teams lost their first Big Ten tournament games.
“Beat [Indiana] three times in a couple of weeks is really hard to do. It’s a really good basketball team,” Bluder said. This whole league is amazing. We should have a record number of invitations from this league to the NCAA Tournament. There is no doubt that we should.”
Going 3-0 against the Hoosiers over the past two weeks – with wins over Michigan, the Northwest and Nebraska to boot – Iowa looks poised to host first and second round games in the NCAA Tournament later this month. Last week, before the league tournament, the committee ranked the Hawkeyes in 14th place. The Hawkeyes, who lost to UConn in the Sweet 16 last year, are looking for their first Final Four appearance since 1993… and possibly more.
“I know Coach Bluder said in the stands, ‘We want to reduce the number of nets,'” Clarke said. “It is so simple”.