Clark’s March Madness marches on, Iowa women beat Colorado

SEATTLE (AP) — Caitlin Clark felt it was allhappening a little too quick and on the stage of playing in aregional semifinal, Iowa’s star needed to slow down for achange.

“I felt like I was playing a little frantic. I felt like I wasrushed on offense,” Clark said.

In this case, slowing down led to a big second half from Clarkand the Hawkeyes.

Clark scored 31 points, 18 coming in the second half, and No. 2seed Iowa shook disappointments the past two seasons and reachedthe Elite Eight of the women’s NCAA Tournament with an 87-77 winover Colorado in the Seattle 4 Regional semifinals on Fridaynight.

After two straight tournaments where Clark’s season ended in theround of 16 and the round of 32, the Hawkeyes will play for achance at just the second Final Four berth in school history onSunday.

“Anytime you get to play basketball for this long, it’s reallyspecial. None of us want this to end,” Iowa’s Monika Czinanosaid.

Clark was the catalyst for Iowa’s big second half, and thefirst-team All-American finished 11 of 22 shooting with four3-pointers and eight assists. It was her 11th game this seasonscoring at least 30 points.

But she had plenty of help, especially after Clark sat a chunkof the first half after picking up two fouls.

Czinano added 15 points, including a key basket in the paintwith 1:10 remaining. Kate Martin scored 16 and McKenna Warnockscored 10. Iowa shot 54% for the game and 59% in the secondhalf.

“We shot the ball very well tonight and I’m proud of thatbecause of Colorado’s defense,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “Wescored more points than anybody has all year against their defense.Their defense is very good, but we were still able to shoot over50% from the field. But you do that when you’re having the balanceof four people in double figures.”

Iowa (29-6) will face No. 5 seed Louisville in the regionalfinal on Sunday. It’s the fifth Elite Eight appearance for theHawkeyes, but their only Final Four appearance came in 1993.

Frida Formann led Colorado (25-9) with 21 points, but 19 ofthose came in the first half when her shooting carried theBuffaloes. But Formann was shut down in the second half and fouledout with 6:37 remaining.

“I had a lot of space in the first half and my teammates werejust finding me. When it’s this stage my job is to shoot the ballso that’s what I’m gonna do,” Formann said. “And then they adjusteddefensively and we’re a little tighter.”

Colorado pulled within 76-70 on Quay Miller’s 3-pointer with4:16 remaining and the deficit was down to 78-74 after JaylynSherrod’s steal and layup with 1:40 left. But that was the lastpush by the Buffaloes as Czinano scored in the paint and Iowa madeseven free throws in the final minute.

Aaronette Vonleh added 13 points and Miller had 12 points and 14rebounds for the Buffs.

“To be down twice by double digits against Iowa and to be ableto fight back and continue to never wilt, never hang our heads andjust keep playing, stay the course was awesome,” Colorado coach JRPayne said.

DECISIVE RUN

Colorado lingered far longer than expected, but it was Iowa’srun in the early stages of the third quarter and keyed by Clarkthat finally gave the Hawkeyes some cushion.

Clark started a string of 11 straight points for the Hawkeyeswith a driving basket, added a 3-pointer off a loose ball andfollowed by a steal and layup that gave Iowa a 54-42 lead andforced Payne to burn two timeouts in 2 minutes.

Iowa eventually pushed the lead to 62-47 and Colorado couldnever catch up over the final 15 minutes leaving Clark and her teamcelebrating before the large Iowa contingent of fans walking offthe court.

“I guess it was kind of our crowd. It felt like there was a lotof Hawk fans out there. I don’t know if they’ve traveled from thestate of Iowa, from the Midwest and if they did, we reallyappreciate that. And if you’re from out here, we appreciate youcoming too,” Clark said.