MINNEAPOLIS — The country’s biggest star was hiding in plain sight.
She was wedged between her teammates and protected by a row of empty seats. When her head wasn’t buried in her phone, she was under the hood of a gray sweatshirt.
Then, the secret was revealed.
Caitlin Clark smiled sheepishly as she appeared on the Jumbotron at Target Center. She was constantly laughing as she chatted with her friends as Penn State and Wisconsin faced off right in front of them.
How else would a lioness see a three-legged gazelle?
Following an 80-56 victory over Wisconsin, the seventh-seeded Nittany Lions’ hopes of making it to the NCAA Tournament hinge on defeating second-seeded Iowa for the first time in more than seven years in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals on Friday. There is a high possibility that
Iowa State (26-4) won 111-93 in the only meeting of the regular season, with Clark scoring 27 points and dishing out 15 assists and teammate Hannah Stuelke scoring 47 points.
In five games against Penn State, Clark averaged 25.8 points, 12.8 assists, and seven rebounds, and the Hawkeyes won by an average of 29.8 points per game.
“It’s funny because she’s obviously the best scorer in college basketball history, and the funny thing is, people don’t talk about her passing enough,” Penn State head coach Carolyn Kieger said. ” he said. “She has incredible vision. She sees the play before it happens. She’s thinking two steps ahead of her.”
Under Coach Kiger, Penn State has protected its star guard as well as any team in the Big Ten.
In two of the five meetings, Clark was not Iowa’s leading scorer.
In a Feb. 8 matchup in Iowa City, Clark made 8 of 23 from the field and committed a career-high 12 turnovers.
“Last game, when she had 12 turnovers, I thought we did a good job with our high hands. So we repeated that, shaking things up, throwing different bodies at her, longer defenders, switching. , you’re going to have to throw doubles,” Kieger said. . “Caitlin, Caitlin, right? You have to make a lot of plans. I don’t think one plan will get you that far. Sometimes you need to have a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. [Plan] D tried his best to stop her.
“This is a phenomenal opportunity for us.”
