Caitlin Clark is inevitable. Similar to Patrick Mahomes in the NFL, no matter how much Clark is struggling, you always feel just around the corner from an offensive explosion.
The Nebraska women’s basketball team experienced the latest rise-from-the-grave performance from the Iowa superstar on Sunday.
Clark finished with a game-high 34 points (plus 12 rebounds and seven assists) in leading the No. 2 seed Hawkeyes to a 94-89 overtime win over Nebraska to win their third consecutive Big Ten Tournament championship.
She was assisted by running mate Kate Martin, who finished with just 13 points but was a perfect 4-for-4 from three in the second half and overtime. Martin followed a Clark three at the 2:09 mark of regulation with a three of her own exactly one minute later to trim the Hawkeyes’ deficit to 77-75 after the Huskers had taken a 75-67 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Clark completed the comeback by converting a game-tying bucket with 29 seconds remaining for a 77-77 stalemate. Nebraska had a chance to win it in regulation, but Logan Nissley missed a tough contested shot at the buzzer.
Martin knocked down both of her three-point attempts in overtime, the second one giving Iowa an 85-84 lead at the 2:10 mark.
Nissley buried a three on the other end to give the Huskers their final lead of the game with just over a minute remaining. Clark netted one from deep moments later for an 89-87 edge with 51 seconds to go.
Nebraska had a chance to take the lead again, but Clark intercepted an ill-advised cross-court skip pass from Jaz Shelley on the ensuing possession before knocking down a pair of free throws.
Alexis Markowski (team-high 23 points and 13 rebounds) powered her way to a bucket in the post to trim the Huskers’ deficit to 91-89 at the 21-second mark to set up what ultimately became the game-deciding sequence.
Martin converted the first of two free throw attempts and missed the second one. But Hannah Stuelke – who moments prior missed two straight from the line that led to Markowski’s basket – muscled her way to an offensive rebound before getting fouled.
Stuelke, getting her shot at redemption, snuck in her first free throw attempt as it bounced around the rim several times before falling through. She then hit the second for the eventual game-winning 94-89 lead. Shelley’s turnover on offense ended the Huskers’ last-second hopes and set off the Hawkeyes’ three-peat celebration at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
The No. 5 seed Huskers (22-11) bottled up Clark in the first half, holding her to just four points on 2-of-13 shooting from the floor (including 0-of-9 on three-pointers). She did not shoot a free throw, either, and she committed a pair of turnovers in the first half. The Nebraska defense – often sending double teams and traps at Clark to get the ball out of her hands and force her into bad or difficult shots – had Clark visibly angry multiple times throughout the first 20 minutes.
Those marks (15.4% and 0%) had her in danger of finishing with season-lows in points (21 against Florida Gulf Coast in a blowout win in November) and shooting percentage (26.3% on FGs and 14.3% on 3PTs just two days ago against Penn State in the quarterfinals).
The Huskers, meanwhile, built a 46-35 halftime lead on 45.9% shooting from the floor (17-of-37) and 43.8% on threes (7-of-16).
But Clark rose up in the second half, exploding out of the gate to score 12 points in the third quarter and 12 more in the fourth quarter on 69% from the field (9-of-13) and 67% from downtown (4-of-6) in a 24-point second-half performance.
Clark still had to work for many of her buckets, but she came up big throughout the second half. That included a layup at the 2:17 mark of the third quarter for the Hawkeyes’ first lead (53-52) since going ahead 5-4 with seven minutes left in the first quarter.
The third period ended with Clark having a personal back-and-forth with the Huskers on offense. Natalie Potts (21 points and nine rebounds) put Nebraska back up by one after an offensive board, Clark drained a three for a 56-55 lead, Markowski buried a three with 11 seconds left after Callin Hake grabbed an offensive board, and Clark finished things off with two free throws to tie the game at 58 going into the fourth.
Clark showed more frustration in the fourth quarter. She made her first two attempts for a 65-63 lead with just over eight minutes to go in regulation. But she followed up with two missed shots and three turnovers, the second of which came on an offensive foul where she clearly pushed off her defender. That paved the way for Shelley’s two free throws for the Huskers’ 75-67 lead at the 2:38 mark.
Clark’s third turnover – a steal by Shelley – came soon after to give Nebraska a chance to truly put the game away, but Hake’s three-point attempt was off mark. Clark followed with a three at the 2:09 mark to spark the rally.
Shelley set the Big Ten women’s tournament record with her 16th-and-final three-pointer in the third quarter. Shelley, however, did not have a great shooting day (5-of-12 from the field, 3-of-10 from three) en route to scoring 16 points one day after putting up a season-high (30 points) in the semifinals against Maryland.
The Huskers star did not attempt a single shot in both the fourth quarter and overtime. She finished with just two points in that time span (on a pair of fourth-quarter free throws) and had just four second-half points on 1-of-4 from the field.
Nebraska will likely need a bigger offensive output from its star guard if it is going to advance in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers are a lock to reach the Big Dance, but they will now await to hear their seeding, opponent and location on Selection Sunday (March 17). They are hovering in the 8-9 seed range by most bracketologists analyzing the women’s tournament.
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