Nicole Cardaño-Hillary forced a steal with just over two minutes remaining and drew a foul to head to the free-throw line. The senior guard missed both shots from the charity stripe, but sophomore forward Mackenzie Holmes tracked down the offensive rebound before converting the putback layup to go up 8 points and put the game out of reach.
After trailing at halftime 43-38 and being down by as many as 7 points in the third quarter, No. 10 IU women’s basketball cruised down the stretch in its 89-80 win over Iowa on Wednesday.
“I thought Iowa’s energy was better in the first half, they just seemed to want the game a little bit more,” head coach Teri Moren said. “Once we fixed that, I thought we came out in the second half and did some really good things to get the lead, hold onto the lead, build the lead.”
The Hoosiers led 17-15 after the first quarter as junior guard Grace Berger hit a jumper in the final seconds with the shot clock turned off, but the Hawkeyes made a big run in the second quarter to go up at halftime.
Iowa outscored IU 28-21 in the second frame to take a 5-point lead heading into the locker room. Hawkeyes’ freshman guard Caitlin Clark capped the quarter with a stepback 3-pointer from NBA-range to finish the half with 19 points.
“We were talking at halftime that we’ve been in these situations countless times before,” junior guard Grace Berger said. “Nothing can really phase us, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.”
Despite a scoring drought of nearly four minutes to open the third quarter, the Hoosiers managed to erase the deficit and limit Clark offensively in the process. Their leading scorer missed four of her first five shots of the second half as IU regained the lead to go up 65-59 at the end of the quarter.
Clark and the Hawkeyes caught fire again with their backs against the wall to cut the deficit to just 4 points, but the Hoosiers grinded out the win with clutch defense and made free throws. Cardaño-Hillary redeemed herself with two late makes from the free-throw line and continued her brilliant defensive stretch for IU, holding Clark to 4-of-8 shooting in the second half before the Iowa freshman ultimately fouled out with 32 points.
“That’s what Nikki brings to our team, she’s just a tenacious defender,” Berger said. “Caitlin Clark’s a really good player, she’s gonna make tough shots, but I thought Nikki was able to slow her down a little bit as best she could and make everything tough for her.”
Holmes recorded a double-double with 11 rebounds, and she joined Berger and senior guard Ali Patberg in scoring 22 points. The Hoosiers not only finished with a 56-38 scoring advantage in the paint but also outrebounded the Hawkeyes 38-21.
IU, 17-4 overall and 15-2 in conference play, will look for its ninth straight win Saturday on Senior Day at 1 p.m. against Purdue in the regular season finale.
