Caitlin Clark, Hawkeyes Sink No. 2 Indiana

Iowa All-American Nails Game-Winning Three-Pointer at Buzzer

Iowa's Caitlin Clark (22) celebrates with teammate Gabbie Marshall (24) after making the game-winning 3-point basket during a game against Indiana on Feb. 26, 2023 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Caitlin Clark’s baseline run for a game she wasn’t playing in was just foreshadowing her celebration on Sunday.

Clark, dressed for practice, ran around the area behind the north basket on Saturday when Payton Sandfort’s 3-pointer at the end of the second half sent the game into overtime, capping a comeback that led to the Iowa men’s basketball team’s win over Michigan State.

On Sunday, Clark was running in the same place, but she was the one who hit the shot.

Clark’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted No. 6 Iowa to an 86-85 win over No. 2 Indiana in the regular-season finale at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

This celebration, Clark said, was different.

“I mean, we won,” Clark quipped. “Payton? Come on. (His shot) couldn’t win it.”

It was the perfect end to a weekend when Carver-Hawkeye thundered with the noise of sellout crowds and victories that will be remembered for a long time.

This win didn’t have the fury of Saturday’s comeback. It was a steady hum of two top-ten teams punching and countering, with Clark delivering the knockout.

There were 1.5 seconds left on the clock when Iowa (23-6 overall, 15-3 Big Ten) set up to either tie or win after Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes had two free throws for an 85-83 lead.

Clark, coming off a Monika Czinano screen, got open when Indiana’s Chloe Moore-McNeil tripped. It was just enough time for Clark to catch, spin, and shoot.

It wasn’t a swish, but the roll was perfect.

“Caitlin … we knew she had it all the time,” said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, hoarse from a cold and still in a daze at what her team had done.

It was a play the Hawkeyes had worked on in practice before, and it hadn’t always worked.

“I remember in practice not setting a great screen,” Czinano said. “So I kind of knew that was going to have to be there. I told her during the huddle to really wait for it, let me come get there and just kind of worked out perfectly.”

“Somehow, I was kind of more wide open than I should have been,” Clark said. “I got the ball, and I didn’t have much time to find the room and try to get it off at the same time, so just hope for the best.”

The best was perfect, sending Clark on a run toward the grandstands with her teammates chasing.

“She’s pretty fast,” forward McKenna Warnock joked.

Indiana (26-2, 16-2), the outright Big Ten champion, had its 14-game winning streak snapped. The Hoosiers had held the Hawkeyes without a field goal in the final minute, tying the game on two Moore-McNeil free throws and taking the lead with the Holmes’ free throws.

Originally, there were just eight-tenths of a second on the clock when the foul on Holmes was called. But Clark’s lobbying helped convince the officials to review, and those seven-tenths of a second, she said, made a difference.

“They can go to the monitor any time in the last two minutes,” Bluder said, “and I’m glad they did.”

Indiana coach Teri Moren said the Hoosiers were set up perfectly to defend the play before Moore-McNeil’s fall.

“I don't know if she got her foot tangled or if she fell on her own,” she said. “I think it would have been different if she wouldn't have been able to stay on her feet.”

Iowa struck early with a 13-2 run to open the game, but Indiana rallied to set up what proved to be an epic battle of not just two of the conference’s best teams, but two of the best teams in the nation.

Holmes led Indiana with 21 points. Moore-McNeil and Sydney Parrish had 18. Grace Berger had 16.

Martin had 19 and Czinano 13 for the Hawkeyes.

Iowa could have been playing for a share of the title, but the 96-68 loss to Maryland took that chance away.

“I told the team we couldn’t be Big Ten champs, but we could beat the Big Ten champs,” Bluder said.

And they did.