Iowa demolished IU in Iowa City. How will Hoosiers respond in Hawkeyes' trip to Bloomington?
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana women’s basketball has one more chance this regular season to pick up a top-10 victory. And gets that opportunity on its homecourt.
No. 16 IU is the only Big Ten team not to lose a home game this season. The Hoosiers are 13-0 at Assembly Hall, but IU’s penultimate home game of the season may be its hardest. No. 4 Iowa is making the return trip to Bloomington on Thursday night to finish off the two-game season series.
The Hoosiers traveled to Iowa City on Jan. 13, and the Hawkeyes handed them an 84-57 loss.
Here are three keys for IU to keep up with Iowa this time around:
Staying in front of Iowa
The Illini had 32 points in the paint by halftime, taking advantage of multiple open lanes left by the Hoosiers for easy layups.
IU tried to close those lanes in the second half, but the Illini still found a way to get past.
“We couldn't keep them in front of us,” coach Teri Moren said following the game. “We didn't have any great rim protection, you know, with our bigs. When you play a team like this, you’ve got to be connected, you’ve got to help each other. You got to really be in the spots to slow some gaps.”
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Staying in front may be even more important against Iowa; the Hawkeyes have no shortage of players who can use the paint to their advantage. Sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke is the main perpetrator, and she displayed that with a 47-point game on 17-of-20 shooting against Penn State — all in the paint or just around it.
Stuelke dominating the paint opens up the floor for the rest of the Hawkeyes, as well. Iowa has two main 3-point shooters — Gabbie Marshall and Caitlin Clark — who can get open looks because opponents are so caught up with Stuelke in the paint.
Caitlin Clark will score. IU needs to limit everyone else.
As Moren has said in the past, it’s nearly impossible to limit Clark, Iowa’s star guard. The senior, who broke the all-time NCAA women’s basketball scoring record last week, averages 32.8 points and 8.5 assists per game.
Clark can have her way with the ball, no matter what defense she’s going up against. So, IU’s best bet might just be to limit Stuelke — and everyone else — as much as possible. Stuelke averages 14.4 points per game, and senior guard Kate Martin rounds out the Hawkeyes’ double-digit scoring averages with 13.5.
“I don’t know that anybody has figured out how to guard Cait, I don’t think anybody has done that,” Moren said ahead of their first matchup in January. “But we’ll make sure that it’ll be sort of similar to what we’ve done in the past. We’ve done a pretty decent job, knowing that she’s going to score. It’s just those other guys, the Martins, Gabbie Marshall, and Stuelke now.”
IU relatively limited Clark in the teams’ first meeting, keeping her two points under her average with 30 points. She fired off 11 assists, however, finding multiple other ways to help her teammates. The Hoosiers will have the tall task of not only limiting her scoring, but her passing as well.
A strong third quarter
What doomed IU against Iowa — and what has been a struggle for the entire season — was the third-quarter performance.
The Hoosiers and Hawkeyes played relatively close throughout the first half on Jan. 13 in Iowa City; Iowa led by six at halftime, but IU came out of break sluggish, scoring 11 points in the third quarter while Iowa scored 22. And that created a deficit the Hoosiers couldn’t dig themselves out of.
It wasn’t the only time IU struggled in third quarter outings. In the loss to Ohio State, IU allowed 23 points and scored 10 in the third. Even in the Hoosiers’ victories, it showed: they scored 16 points against Maryland while allowing 29, and scored seven against Wisconsin while allowing 14.
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“Anytime your shot’s not falling, and that happened to us in the third quarter, that doesn't mean our defense can go down the toilet,” Moren said following the Wisconsin game. “I thought that we were thinking about the shots that we missed, and I don't know if we felt bad for ourselves, but I thought we lacked a lot of, you know, toughness, readiness, just defensively and that's a bad habit.”
The Hoosiers have taken steps to try and fix this issue; they’ve switched up their halftime routine in an attempt to stay warm during the break and to not dwell on the game. The switch worked in the first game IU played against Michigan State, but it regressed against Wisconsin.
To beat Iowa, IU will need to be nearly perfect. Including a strong showing out of halftime.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball: How can IU slow down Caitlin Clark, Iowa
