In a game added last minute, Iowa beat Evansville 93-56. Iowa led by 20+ in the first half, but Evansville went on a 10-0 run to close out the 2Q. Iowa has had some absolutely brutally cold stretches at times (see the end of the IUPUI game, the end of the ISU game, the entire Duke game lmao). So it was nice to see them pour on the gas and pull away in the 2nd half. Considering that Evansville is not very good, was missing their starting PG, and was fatigued after just playing a game yesterday, it doesn't mean much. But for Iowa, any game at this pointtw is better than nothing considering the cancellations we've had.
Due to COVID protocols, Iowa was without it's starting frontcourt of Warnock and Czinano. So freshman post Addy O'Grady had a career high in minutes, pointes, and rebounds, finishing with 14 and 12. 6'4'' O'Grady played the 4 on the same high school team as Lauren Betts, who obviously played the 5.
Clark had a career high 44 points on just 26 shots in just 30 minutes. This was an arena record and also made her the fastest Big Ten player to reach 1000 points in her career, edging Kelsey Mitchell by one game (see tweet). She also had 5 boards, 8 assists, 2 steals, and best of all only 1 turnover today. Tbh these stats say more about Evansville's defense than anything, but it was great to see Clark make some of the shots again that Iowa fans started taking for granted last season.
Iowa shot only 30% as a team from 3. We've gone from being the best 3-point shooting team in the conference to the worst, but Bluder seems to have faith that the shots will start falling eventually as every guard still seems to have the green light when open. Time will tell if this is a good plan...