BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - 17,222 fans filed into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana to watch two Big Ten titans clash on the hardwood on Thursday night. Some of them sported black and yellow in support of the Hawkeyes, while a majority repped the cream and crimson of the Hoosiers.
The coming together of two of the top teams in the sport garnered the attention women's college basketball fans around the country. They all had their eyes fixated on the second matchup of the year between No. 14 Indiana and No. 4 Iowa.
Thursday's showdown was a battle of two of the best and most efficient offenses in the country. Indiana entered the evening as the nation's most efficient shooting team, both from the field and from behind the 3-point arc.
Iowa came into the game right behind Indiana as the second-most efficient field goal shooting team in the country, a top 15 team from 3-point range and the nation's highest-scoring outfit.
Inside of a raucous and frenzied Assembly Hall, only one of the nation's top offenses looked the part on Thursday.
"Tenacious."
That's the word Iowa star Caitlin Clark used to describe Indiana's suffocating defensive effort on Thursday night.
"(Indiana) was physical, face guarding me and denying me the ball," Clark explained postgame following the Hoosiers' 86-69 win over the Hawkeyes. "They threw a lot of different people at me and pushed me off my spots."
The Hoosiers threw a lot of different looks at Clark and the Hawkeyes all night long. They had to. Iowa torched Indiana in the first meeting between the two teams back on Jan. 13. Four Hawkeyes scored in double-figures, including Clark who dropped a 30-piece. The Hoosiers knew they had to switch up their defensive game plan.
Indiana did a lot of switching against Iowa on Thursday night in an effort to try and keep Clark from breaking free around screens. That's not something the Hoosiers did with much frequency back on Jan. 13. On-ball and off-ball the Hoosiers switched pretty much every screen Clark attempted to speed around.
When she wasn't sprinting around screens, Clark was being face guarded by an Indiana defender. At times, the Hoosiers even employed a triangle and two type of zone defense to prevent Hawkeye star from getting going.
"(Indiana) had a great game plan," Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. "I think it frustrated Caitlin (Clark) at times."
The Hoosiers' game plan to slow down Clark certainly worked. Clark still posted 24 points in the loss, but that's eight points shy of her season average. The key for Indiana was to contest every shot she took and to make it as difficult as possible for her each time she touched the ball. Clark had one of her least efficient games of the season on Thursday night.
The senior shot 8-26 (31%) from the floor, her second-worst shooting performance of the season. Clark's 3-16 (19%) night from 3-point range is her third-worst performance from deep this year.
Limiting Clark was a key to Indiana's defensive game plan against the Hawkeyes, but the Hoosiers knew she would get her buckets regardless. The real key to the Indiana's success was quieting Iowa's other offensive options.
"I thought our guys -- from the jump -- really got after it defensively," Teri Moren said. "I thought we made everything very difficult for Caitlin Clark tonight and that's hard to do. I think maybe the most important thing was that we kept (Kate) Martin, Molly Davis, (Hannah) Stuelke and (Gabbie) Marshall relatively quiet."
Iowa is the nation's highest scoring offense. The Hawkeyes are averaging north of 90 points per game this season. The Hawkeyes came into Thursday night's game averaging over 100 points per game in their last six wins. Clark is the leader, but Iowa has a lot of players that contribute offensively.
What the Hoosiers did on Thursday evening was hold the Hawkeyes to their third-lowest offensive output of the season. Iowa shot 39% from the floor against Indiana on Thursday. That's the worst an Indiana opponent has shot against the Hoosiers this season in Big Ten play.
The Hoosiers' defense has let them down in a handful of games this season. Indiana's defensive effort in Monday's 20-point loss to Illinois was one of the poorest defensive outings of the season for the Hoosiers.
The way Indiana played on the defensive end of the floor against perhaps the most potent offenses in women's college basketball, is something for the Hoosiers to build on. There's no reason they can't perform like they did on Thursday night, every night.
Indiana's All-American and the Big Ten's reigning Defensive Player of the Year said it best.
"We know we're capable of games like this night in and night out."
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