The sun rises in the East. It sets in the West. It’s how it always has been, things aren’t changing and you can guarantee that it will keep on happening.
That’s pretty much the story with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and the Big Ten weekly awards. For the 18th time in her career and for the sixth time this season, Iowa guard Caitlin Clark was announced as the Big Ten’s Player of the Week.
Of course, Clark just hit the buzzer-beating game winner to sink No. 2 Indiana, 86-85. The West Des Moines native caught the basketball with 1.5 seconds left and went to work off a Monika Czinano screen.
The rest is history as they say. Angling right, Clark buried the 3-pointer as it rattled around and down through the bucket as time expired. It’s the latest and perhaps greatest singular instance of Clark’s superstardom.
It was only amplified by the fact that Clark delivered on a GameDay stage with the program’s fifth all-time sellout crowd in attendance. She finished with 34 points on 12-of-22 shooting from the floor with nine rebounds and nine assists.
𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐓𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤. @CaitlinClark22 wins the conference’s POW award for the 6th time this season! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/9ARuvFUR2x
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) February 27, 2023
The performance against Indiana was the 12th time in Clark’s career that she has scored 30 or more points against a ranked opponent.
Iowa’s win also constituted the fourth for the Hawkeyes this season over a top-10 opponent in the Associated Press poll. That’s the most for Iowa in a single season. It’s also the first time under Iowa head women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder that the Hawkeyes have won 15 Big Ten regular season games.
“I’m just grateful. I know that sounds boring, but I’m blessed to be around these wonderful young ladies. What a way to go out for our seniors, too. This is exactly what we need heading into the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament,” Bluder said.
Iowa (23-6, 15-3 Big Ten) heads to the conference tournament as the league’s No. 2 seed and will play the winner of No. 7 Purdue and No. 10 Wisconsin on Friday, March 3 at 5:30 p.m. CT.
[lawrence-auto-related count=5]
[mm-video type=playlist id=01fvdcxf97xrgg1awc player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Josh on Twitter: @JoshOnREF