Last year’s NCAA tournament finalists, the Iowa Hawkeyes, tipped off March Madness in style. In their opening game of the Albany 2 region, Caitlin Clark and Co. secured a comfortable 91-65 victory against the Holy Cross Crusaders. Consequently, they now advance to the second round, where a confident West Virginia is waiting for them. However, it appears that the prominent No.22 isn’t pleased with her team’s overall performance.

Soon after the game ended, ESPN’s Holly Rowe got a chance to pick the brain of the reigning national player of the year. Pointing towards Iowa’s slow start in the opening quarter, she asked Clark what was the situation like in that period. She replied, “I thought they made a lot of shots. I thought they competed really well. Gotta give credit to them. I don’t know if we really played our best basketball there. Obviously, we were a little rusty. I thought we could just have executed our offense a little better.”

The game was neck-to-neck in the opening quarter. The Crusaders had a fitting reply for everything Iowa threw at them. Moreover, they were able to breach the Hawkeyes’ defense with ease with an aggressive approach in their offensive play. As a result, there was only a difference of two points by the end of the first quarter, as the score was 23-21.

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Nonetheless, the big guns for Iowa stepped up after a below-par opening quarter to get the Hawkeyes over the line.

Caitlin Clark leading Iowa to Round 2

As always, it was another productive outing for the great Iowa point guard. Caitlin Clark was able to record a double-double for the evening by grabbing 27 points and 10 assists. In addition to this, she shot 8-19 from the field and had 33.3% accuracy from beyond the arc. She also grabbed 8 rebounds and had 3 steals and 1 block next to her name.

Apart from Clark, No. 20 Kate Martin also chipped in with a double-double scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Also, there was a valuable contribution of 14 points in 14 minutes from junior forward Addison O’Grady.

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The competition will get tougher from here on for last year’s NCAA finalists. Any lapses will be costly and can result in a direct elimination for Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes. Nonetheless, the way the team responded after the opening quarter is truly commendable.

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