BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Iowa women's basketball suffered its largest margin of defeat of the season, falling to Indiana 86-69 at Assembly Hall on Thursday.
Iowa State star Kaitlin Clark scored 24 points. However, Clark was not very efficient, shooting 8-of-26 from the field and 3-of-16 from deep. Along with Clark, Kate Martin had 19 points and Hannah Stolke had 10 points. Besides that trio, no other Hawkeye had more than six points.
As a team, Iowa State shot 38.8 from the field.
Inconsistency between the three-point line was a major factor in Thursday's result. Indiana shot 9 of 21 (42.9%) from deep. Meanwhile, Iowa shot just 5-of-28 (17.9%) from long range.
Indiana's Sarah Scalia had 25 and hit 3-of-8 from deep. Yarden Garzon contributed 15 goals and went 3-of-5 from deep. During Iowa State's win over Indiana earlier this season, these two combined for 17 points on 7-of-19 from the field.
On Thursday, Indiana star Mackenzie Holmes added 24 points.
But part of Tuesday's struggles was also the fact that Indiana State outgained Iowa. The Hoosiers played with a physicality that Iowa State was unable to compete with.
This is not to downplay the difficulty of winning on the Assembly floor. Indiana, despite coming off a 20-point road loss before Thursday, is still a good team. Playing in such a noisy environment makes the task more difficult.
But the extent to which Iowa looked out of sorts was not encouraging.
Iowa State struggled mightily in the first half. Kaitlyn Clark, who scored 20 of Iowa State's 33 points, didn't have much help around her. Indiana shot 40% from deep, while Iowa shot just 21.4%. Another concern was Iowa's lack of density. The Hoosiers played with much more of an advantage than the Hawkeyes.
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Iowa State, which trailed 44-33 at halftime, had a tough task ahead of it.
Less than two minutes into the third quarter, Iowa State's deficit had risen to 16.
The Hawkeyes finally showed some signs of life, going on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 11. But Indiana's Sidney Parrish responded by hitting threes on back-to-back Hoosier offensive possessions.
However, Iowa State continued to fight. By the end of the third quarter, the gap had been reduced to eight points.
But Indiana closed the door, outscoring Iowa by nine points in the fourth quarter. In the second and fourth quarters combined, the Hoosiers outscored the Hawkeyes by 19 points.
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Iowa State's path to winning the Big Ten title — or at least a share of it — took a big hit on Tuesday. The Hawkeyes, who are now 12-3 in the conference, now trail Ohio State and Indiana in the Big Ten standings.
Ohio State is at the top of the group with a 14-1 conference mark. Indiana, which has played more Big Ten games than Iowa, is now 13-3 in the conference. Iowa State 12-3.
Iowa doesn't have a lot of time to get going, especially Ohio State. The Hawkeyes have three more regular season games: Illinois (home), Minnesota (away) and Ohio State (home). The Buckeyes now control their own destiny and can claim the Big Ten Championship title outright with a win.
To even have a chance at the top of the standings, Iowa needs to win and get help elsewhere.
This amplifies some of the collapses Iowa State experienced earlier this season. The Hawkeyes have blown fourth-quarter leads on the road against both Ohio State and Nebraska this season. That made the margin for error very small, which came back to bite them in a game like this, where a loss in a challenging environment could derail their chances at a Big Ten title.
When it comes to the Big Ten title race, Thursday may be a blow Iowa State can't recover from.
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