Caitlin Clark and the No. 1 seed Iowa Hawkeyes began their 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament run with a 91-65 win over No. 16 Holy Cross in Iowa City on Saturday. The Hawkeyes will now play the winner of West Virginia and Princeton in the second round on Monday.
This was the first game for Iowa since winning the Big Ten Tournament championship in dramatic fashion on March 10, and for stretches it looked very much like a team that had not played in two weeks. That was especially true early on, as Clark had as many turnovers (five) as points in the first quarter. The Hawkeyes led by just two after the opening 10 minutes.
"I thought they made a lot of shots, they competed really well," Clark said. "Gotta give it credit to them. I don't know if we really played our best basketball there. Obviously a little rust, but I thought we could have executed our offense a little better. I thought we responded really well, we always had an answer."
Perhaps nothing summed up the early frustration better than Clark's dad appearing to tell her to stop as she complained to the referees late in the second quarter.
"Maybe a little too hard [on myself]," Clark said. "I should probably smile more. I'm just a competitor. I love having fun, I love this game. I'm a perfectionist. But yeah, I think if you don't smile a little more -- obviously I've only got one more time to play in this building and I love this place a lot."
As the day went on, Clark started to round into form and her teammates continued hitting shots. Like most teams that have faced Iowa this season, Holy Cross was unable to keep up on the offensive end.
Clark finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and 10 assists to lead the way, narrowly missing out on a triple-double that she likely would have gotten if she hadn't checked out in the middle of the fourth quarter. Kate Martin (15 points), Addison O'Grady (14) and Gabbie Marshall (11) all chipped in with double-figure scoring efforts. As a team, Iowa hit 10 3-pointers and assisted on 21 of 31 made field goals.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Iowa has won a first round game in the tournament, and they hope this is just the beginning of another long run. When they suit up again on Monday in the second round, it will be the last game they play at home this season, and the final game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for the team's five seniors.
"From here on out, every single team in this tournament is really, really good," Clark said. "Everybody's a top-25 team at that point, so you've gotta come ready to play. It's gonna come down to single possessions, but our group should know that better than anybody else.
"We have the experience. We've been upset on our home floor and we've also made it to the national title game. I think we know what it takes in March, just leaning into that and having a lot of fun with our crowd and with each other, we've got five seniors that have given a lot to this program, so just enjoy every second."