A season highlighted by the Hawkeyes capturing a share of the Big Ten regular season championship and winning the Big Ten Tournament came to a close as No. 10 seed Creighton upset second-seeded Iowa inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday afternoon, 64-62.
It looked like Iowa (24-8) was set to outlast Creighton (22-9) and advance into the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive season after Hawkeye junior guard Gabbie Marshall connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to put Iowa in front 56-54 with 6:53 remaining. Instead, Creighton weathered the Hawkeyes crowd after it had been brought to fever pitch.
Iowa transfer and now sophomore Creighton guard Lauren Jensen hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 15 seconds left to play as the Bluejays pulled off the 2022 NCAA Tournament’s biggest stunner to date.
Iowa trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half, but the Hawkeyes battled their way back all afternoon long.
“I’m just really proud of this team. I mean, and the exciting thing is we return everybody from our starting lineup, and that’s exciting. We have three great recruits coming in. But I couldn’t be more proud of this group. I love them. I can’t believe I don’t get to go to practice tomorrow. That’s the hardest thing for me right now is that I don’t get to go to practice tomorrow,” Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder said.
Bluder said Iowa got what it was looking for on its final possession with the Hawkeyes trailing 64-62 and 3.6 seconds remaining to operate with.
“We did. We wanted to get it to either Monika or Caitlin. Those were our two people we were trying to get the ball to,” Bluder said.
A memorable season comes to a close, but one of the best parts of Iowa’s season was the type of fan support this team received. Here’s a look at some of the social media reactions to Iowa’s season-ending loss to Creighton.