Arace: Ohio State victory over Caitlin Clark, No. 2 Iowa was an event to remember

Sunday morning, two hours before tipoff between the Ohio State women's basketball team and visiting Iowa, traffic was backed up a quarter mile at the Lane Avenue exit to Route 315. It wasn’t like football traffic, mind you, but the motorists trying to get to Value City Arena knew their situation was not normal, not for this time of year. The Caitlin Clark Show was in town and the energy was building with each flash of the brake lights.

Later, inside the arena, I saw a daughter-father duo. She wore a black and gold Iowa Hawkeyes shirt and he was doing his best to fake it with a gray Crew hoodie, emblazoned with black and gold. I saw another such duo, she with an Iowa No. 22 jersey and he with a gold Wyoming Cowboys hoodie. We bend with our children when the Clark Show hits town. 

While the roars for Clark and the Hawkeyes were fulsome, there was no mistaking that the sellout crowd skewed scarlet and gray. The optimal outcome would have been a Buckeyes victory coupled with a 50-point game for Clark. And so it went, pretty much.

Behind the powerful, low-post work of Cotie McMahon (33 points, 13 rebounds) and an unrelenting and physical defense, the Buckeyes hung around through regulation, got the game to overtime and then ran away with a 100-92 victory. Clark (45 points), well-guarded throughout, simply ran out of daggers. When the final horn sounded, a couple hundred fans stormed the court, and one of the fans trucked Clark and sent her sprawling to the floor.

Afterward, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder praised Ohio State’s team and expressed disappointment that her players were exposed to injury amid the postgame chaos. Clark had similar sentiments. Both were pure class.

“Great environment,” Clark said, without irony. “I can see storming the court. It’s fine. Great for the students. (But) I was absolutely just hammered. Hammered. I was scared I had a serious injury. I had the wind knocked out of me. The AD (OSU’s Gene Smith) already apologized, which is nice. This is what comes with the territory. ... I told the girls in the locker room, ‘We’re lucky enough to get to play them again.' ”

Ohio State (15-3, 6-1 Big Ten) was ranked No. 18 heading into weekend. They will visit Iowa City for a rematch with the No. 2 Hawkeyes (18-2, 7-1) on March 3. It’ll be the regular-season finale for both teams.

About a month ago, Ohio State officials in various branches of the athletic department began entertaining the idea of opening up the upper bowl to Value City Arena for the Iowa game. They noted that when Clark played on the road, attendance spiked. Iowa sold out three of its first four road games, at Iowa State (14,267), Rutgers (8,000) and Purdue (14,876). At Wisconsin, Iowa drew 14,252, about 3,000 shy of a sellout at the Kohl Center.

Ohio State: Caitlin Clark collides with court-storming fan after Buckeyes upset Iowa

Normally, Ohio State shrouds the upper deck of their cavernous arena for women’s basketball games. Why not open it up for the Clark Show? They put a $16 price on general admission tickets for the upper bowl and, eventually, they sold it out. As for the premium territory, our Colin Gay last week reported that seats behind the Iowa bench were selling for $300-plus and midcourt chairs on the opposite side of the court were going for as much as $2,600.

Opening up the 300 section and making it relatively affordable was a brilliant idea. Any number of school buses – presumably loaded with girls basketball teams who were pining to see the woman who may be the defining player of their generation – were among those who had to be patient (and aggressive) while they waited on the Lane Avenue Exit.

The largest crowd to witness a women’s college basketball game was 55,646, for an exhibition game played last fall at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium. Clark had a triple-double (34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) as the Hawkeyes rolled to a 94-72 victory over DePaul. Sunday, a crowd of 18,660 jammed Value City Arena for the Clark show. It was the largest crowd for an indoor women’s basketball game this season and a record crowd for an Ohio State women’s basketball game.

They saw a signature victory for coach Kevin McGuff’s program and they got a live look at Clark, who is the fourth-leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history and still climbing. Her game seems limitless, with step-back 3s over double teams to wicked, crosscourt skip passes to hard slashes to the hoop and inventive finishes.

It was like seeing Pete Maravich or Larry Bird, or Cheryl Miller or Diana Taurasi. These are the rare players who make every game an event, and if you were in the building the day Clark Show came to town and the Buckeyes won, the memory will not soon fade.

marace@dispatch.com

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State victory over Caitlin Clark, Iowa was event to remember