Nebraska stuns No. 2 Iowa as Caitlin Clark file chase continues

LINCOLN, Neb. — Iowa senior guard Caitlin Clark hit one milestone Sunday — 1,000 assists — however not the one that everybody has been counting down towards.

Clark had 31 factors because the No. 2 Hawkeyes fell 82-79 to host Nebraska earlier than a sellout crowd of 15,042 at Pinnacle Financial institution Area. She is now eight factors away from breaking the NCAA girls’s basketball scoring file (3,527 factors by Washington’s Kelsey Plum).

It was the Hawkeyes’ third lack of the season, and it was the primary time that Clark has misplaced to the Huskers in her Iowa profession.

She entered the fourth quarter with 31 factors and Iowa main by 14, however she did not rating once more because the Huskers outscored the Hawkeyes 27-10 to get the victory. That tied for Iowa’s worst fourth-quarter margin in any recreation since quarters have been applied in 2015-16.

“We simply did not execute down the stretch,” Clark stated, “and that stinks.”

It was the primary time in Clark’s profession she has performed your entire fourth quarter with out scoring. She was 0-of-6 from the sector, tying her worst capturing in a fourth quarter. She beforehand went 0-of-6 within the remaining interval of an NCAA match second-round loss to Creighton in 2022.

That loss had a lot increased stakes than Sunday’s, because it ended her sophomore season.

“Understanding our objectives are nonetheless intact, there isn’t any cause to freak out,” Clark stated after Sunday’s loss. “There is no cause to get down on yourselves. We are able to we nonetheless management our future; that is all that issues. Possibly it is a good reset for our workforce to have the ability to look within the mirror and discover methods to get higher.”

Clark completed with 10 assists and eight rebounds. She now has 1,005 assists and is the one Division I girls’s participant to have reached the three,000-point, 1,000-assist mark. No males’s participant on file has hit these milestones, however that comes with a caveat that assists weren’t formally compiled as an NCAA statistic till the 1982-83 season. Ladies’s basketball got here underneath NCAA governance in 1981-82.

“That is what I take quite a lot of delight in,” Clark stated of her mixture of scoring and playmaking. “I would like to have the ability to set my teammates up and hopefully in return that makes my life somewhat simpler, too, of getting my spots. An help does not come with out my teammate ending the ball and clearly I performed with quite a lot of actually good gamers over the previous 4 years.”

Nonetheless, the largest factor on her thoughts, in fact, was the loss. The Hawkeyes, which entered the day tied with Ohio State in first place within the Huge Ten, fell to 11-2 in convention play. They have been additionally a projected No. 1 seed within the NCAA match, and the NCAA girls’s choice committee will reveal its first projected prime 16 seeds Thursday.

That can be the following time Clark will get a shot at breaking the NCAA scoring file. Contemplating she has been held to single digits in scoring simply as soon as in her Iowa profession, it appears doubtless the milestone will come Thursday towards Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye Area in Iowa Metropolis.

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder had stated earlier within the week that it might be nice if Clark may break the mark at residence, however not on the expense of shedding Sunday on the street.

Bluder was visibly and audibly offended after Sunday’s recreation.

Three of the Huskers gamers — together with Nebraska’s main scorer, Jaz Shelley (23 factors) — have been introduced into the media room earlier than Iowa, and Bluder may very well be heard outdoors the media room saying that wasn’t Huge Ten protocol and that the Hawkeyes had a airplane to catch. She additionally was heard complaining about music being performed within the enviornment at instances when the Hawkeyes have been capturing free throws.

Iowa went 9-of-15 from the foul line; Clark was 6-of-9.

Requested whether or not the music bothered her, Clark stated no.

“I actually did not even discover,” Clark stated. “Whether or not it is music or followers yelling at you, it does not actually matter. You could have to have the ability to make the free throw.”

Nebraska moved to 16-8 total and 8-5 within the Huge Ten. Clark credited Nebraska’s defensive modifications for serving to stymie the Hawkeyes within the fourth quarter. After the outburst outdoors the media room, Bluder did not are available in to deal with the media however then did communicate to reporters within the hallway briefly afterward.

Bluder agreed with Clark’s evaluation.

“They modified defenses. I am actually stunned, towards the box-and-one, that we did not rating higher,” Bluder stated. “We type of bought stagnant in that scenario. It is easy to [defend] once you’re simply standing there. That is my fault. I’ve bought to make them [move].”

Clark stated she has not been bothered by the scoring file chase. She is rather more involved that the Hawkeyes have let double-digit leads get away within the second half of a number of video games, together with their Huge Ten losses to Ohio State and Nebraska.

“It isn’t been a distraction in any respect,” Clark stated of the file. “… When it occurs, it occurs. It is actually not going to have an effect on my life that a lot. I am simply going to maintain going about my enterprise as I’ve the final 4 years. Pointing to my teammates and hopefully main this workforce to succeed in our objectives.

“You possibly can’t get too caught up in a single loss. All everyone wants proper now’s a lift of confidence, and I do know I may give it to them.”