IOWA CITY: The hottest athletic tickets in the nation were once again located in Iowa City. A sold-out Carver Hawkeye Arena was treated to a preseason matchup between the Indiana Fever and the Brazilian National Team as Clark returns to her alma mater’s hardwood in a nod to Hawkeye fans. Tickets on the resale market were averaging $600 for what is potentially Caitlin Clark’s last time playing at the University of Iowa. Clark sat out yesterday due to a lower leg injury, but appeared willing and able to put in some minutes on the floor today for Iowa fans. She warned her teammates this would be the loudest arena they have ever played in and wanted to get on the court to make that happen.
Clark did just that by starting the game and getting the first points of the match with a 24’ jumper for three. The crowd did their part hitting volume levels typical for Carver Hawkeye and unheard of elsewhere. The Fever got off to a quick 8-0 lead after one minute. Bonner drained a three followed up a layup to take up the crowd after 4 minutes putting the score at 15-9. Clark fans were questioning what was going on when she disappeared to the tunnel after five minutes of play but was back on the floor after a couple minutes. Indiana’s Cunningham hit a 3 + 1 combo and Colson dazzled fans with a behind the back pass on a fast layup run to Howard. The Fever continued to extend their lead to 37-17 by the end of the quarter ending with a Clark signature step back three.
The second quarter began to feel more like the Globetrotters vs the Generals as Indiana continued to extend their lead throughout the quarter. Fans were treated to a lot of heads-up plays with a smattering of three pointers and layups. The physicality of play danced back and forth between in your face and completely relaxed. At the half, The Fever led Brazil 70-24.
The pattern continued again in the third with a notable moment when Clark hit a three from two feet behind her ‘22’ decal on the Iowa court. After that it was all smiles as Clark and her teammates played with the crowd via the videoboard to rile them up and build some excitement after a pretty uneventful quarter of basketball which ended 90-35 after 30 minutes of play. The final score was 108-44.
