March Madness: Caitlin Clark, No. 2 Iowa survive scare from No. 10 Georgia to reach Sweet 16

They certainly didn’t make it easy, but Caitlin Clark and No. 2 Iowa are headed to the Sweet 16.

The Hawkeyes escaped a tight battle with No. 10 Georgia on Sunday afternoon in Iowa City in the second round of the NCAA tournament. They won, 74-66, thanks to a final defensive stand that held the Bulldogs scoreless in the final two minutes of the game and resulted in them committing a pair of flagrant fouls in the final seconds.

Clark, a national player of the year favorite, dropped 22 points and had 12 assists in the win. She was responsible for all but two of Iowa’s second-half points, too.

Clark and the Hawkeyes looked great right away on Sunday afternoon. She drained two 3-pointers almost instantly, including one where she pulled up from the logo with 27 seconds still left on the shot clock.

Clark went quiet after that, however, and scored just two more points the rest of the half. That opened the door for Georgia and Diamond Battles, who put up 16 points in the first 20 minutes and kept them within just a single point at the break.

Clark picked up her third foul early in the third quarter, and things were starting to look like a repeat of last year’s upset loss to Creighton in the second round at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Bulldogs weren’t going away, and Georgia took a brief lead off a Javyn Nicholson layup late in the period.

Though the Hawkeyes mounted a couple of small runs to end the third and start the fourth quarter, it wasn’t enough to finally surge ahead. The Bulldogs cut the game back to a single possession after an Audrey Warren 3-pointer with just more than two minutes left.

But that was the last bucket Georgia scored. The Bulldogs had several chances, including after a huge steal by Battles that left her on a fast break in the final seconds and should have cut the game to a single possession again, but she couldn’t get it to fall.

Jordan Isaacs then committed a flagrant foul on Iowa’s Gabbie Marshall with just 3.8 seconds left when she hit her in the face in the corner on the other end. That sent Clark to the line, where she hit a pair of free throws to push Iowa’s lead even further. Nicholson gave Clark an extra shove a play later, too, which resulted in another flagrant foul and another two points for Iowa — which sealed the eight-point win.

Battles led Georgia with 21 points and six rebounds. She was held scoreless in the third quarter after her huge first half, and made only two more shots the rest of the game. Nicholson and Brittney Smith added 12 points each. The Bulldogs, who beat No. 7 Florida State in the first round of the tournament, were searching for their first Sweet 16 trip since 2013.

Monika Czinano added 20 points and nine rebounds in the win for Iowa. Marshall finished with 15 points and shot 5 of 8 from behind the arc, and McKenna Warnock put up 14 points with eight rebounds. The Hawkeyes are now headed to their third Sweet 16 in five years. They’ll take on either Colorado or Duke on Friday in the Seattle 4 region.