Foul trouble hinders Chippewas in first-round at hands of Iowa
A showdown of two of the nation’s top-10 scorers was nearly over before it really got going.
Central Michigan star Micaela Kelly picked up her third foul with 1:11 left in the first quarter on an unfortunate trip near midcourt. And the nation’s leading scorer, Caitlin Clark, and her Iowa teammates took advantage.
Clark finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, Monika Czinano also scored 23 points, and No. 5 seed Iowa beat 12th-seeded Central Michigan 87-72 on Sunday in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
“I thought that was the difference in the game to be very honest,” Central Michigan coach Heather Oesterle said. “I try not to complain to the officials, but when you take my best player out with three fouls in the first quarter, that obviously affected us.”
Kelly had eight points in six minutes but Clark combined with Kate Martin for 23 points and five 3-pointers in the opening 10 minutes to give the Hawkeyes a 27-20 lead.
Kelly, ranking seventh at 23.9 points, finished with 23 points and four 3-pointers in 27 minutes.
“That was big because she’s obviously their No. 1 scorer and someone that they look for, somebody that’s had a lot of experience,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “So yeah when we got her into foul trouble I thought that was tremendous and put her on the bench.”
Iowa (19-9) advances to play fourth-seeded Kentucky, which beat Idaho State, on Tuesday.
Clark had 15 points and five assists through the first 14 minutes — before picking up her second foul with 3:33 in the half on a charging call. Iowa was comfortably ahead at the break 4837
Clark was held to two points in the third quarter but teammate McKenna Warnock, who was scoreless in the first half, scored 11 straight Iowa points — capped by a 3-pointer to give the Hawkeyes a 63-52 lead.
Molly Davis, ranking 22nd at 20.9 points, was just 7 of 18 from the field for 18 points with six rebounds and five steals for Central Michigan (18-9).
“Our team, it runs around Micaela and it runs around Molly Davis and when one of them is out, we really struggle,” Oesterle added.