No. 2 Iowa Too Much for Penn State
Caitlin Clark chiseled a bit off her historic chase.
But as she watched Hannah Stuelke nearly make her own history, Clark had a message for Stuelke when she left the court for the final time in Iowa’s 111-93 win over Penn State on Thursday.
Stuelke had just scored 47 points, one point behind the single-game program record set by Megan Gustafson, and one point ahead of Clark’s career best. So Clark, who had 27 points on a turnover-filled night, couldn’t resist saying something to the sophomore.
“She said, ‘I expect you to do this every game now,’” Stuelke said, laughing as she recalled the conversation.
History — Clark’s chase of Kelsey Plum to become the NCAA women’s basketball all-time leading scorer — hung over Thursday’s game. Not that Clark was going to break the record — she came in needing 66 points to do it, and left needing 39 — but it was a matter of how much of the margin she could trim heading into Sunday’s game at Nebraska and next Thursday’s home game against Michigan.
It was not, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said, part of the pre-game conversation.
“We were just trying to win a game,” Bluder said. “That’s all that’s on our mind. I don’t know how many more points she needs — I can do the math. It’s going to happen, so to me that’s not important. It’s important to win this game.”
While Clark was struggling early — she was 2-of-7 from the field in the first quarter while picking up two fouls — Stuelke was quietly staking her territory inside against the Nittany Lions.
Clark, who had assists on 11 of 17 Stuelke’s field goals, was quite happy to feed her the ball as Stuelke kept getting downhill against the Nittany Lions.
“I kind of just turn and go,” Stuelke said. “I did track in high school, so I’m really fast.”
It took a little while for the second-ranked Hawkeyes (22-2 overall, 11-1 Big Ten) to shake Penn State (16-7, 7-5). Iowa finally got the lead for good early in the second quarter and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half.
Everyone was on Clark Watch, if that’s what you want to call this pursuit, but Stuelke just kept dominating. She was 17-of-20 from the field, 13-of-21 from the free-throw line, drew 13 fouls, and just kept scoring. Thirty-two of Stuelke’s points came in the second half as she became the first Hawkeye to outscore Clark in a game since Monika Czinano did it in a November 13, 2022 game against Drake.
“It was a lot of fun,” Stuelke said. “My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball, and I had mismatches in there.”
Stuelke came into the game averaging just 12.7 points.
“I think my confidence is going to come up a lot,” she said. “Now I can be more aggressive offensively, so that’s exciting.”
It was a night of plenty of other individual performances for the Hawkeyes. Kate Martin had 16 points and 16 rebounds. Sydney Affolter had nine points and 10 rebounds before fouling out.
Clark had 15 assists, tying a Carver-Hawkeye Arena record, but also committed a career-high 12 turnovers. She was 8 of 23 from the field, only 4 of 14 in 3-pointers.
Now she goes to Nebraska, 39 points away from her own history.
“I would rather she break it at home, just because our Carver-Hawkeye fans deserve that,” Bluder said. “But believe me, our No. 1 priority will be to win the game at Nebraska.”
Stuelke plans on taking Clark’s message to heart.
“She just has a lot of confidence in me and wants me to keep playing at my best,” Stuelke said. “She just keeps building me up.”
