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Caitlin Clark, No. 2 Iowa struggle, fall to Kansas State
Michael Voepel, ESPN.com
Nov 16, 2023, 11:28 PM ET
IOWA CITY, Iowa — In just the second week of the season, upsets have been the story of women’s basketball. The latest came Thursday, as the unranked Kansas State Wildcats beat the No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes and superstar Caitlin Clark 65-58.
There were losses by preseason No. 1 LSU and No. 2 UConn before the voting for Monday’s Associated Press poll. Those upsets helped boost the Hawkeyes to No. 2 behind No. 1 South Carolina to start this week.
But then for the second season in a row — almost a year to the day later — Kansas State upset Iowa. Last season, the unranked Wildcats won over the No. 4 Hawkeyes 84-83 in Manhattan, Kansas, in a game in which Clark turned her ankle in the closing seconds.
That injury didn’t cause her to miss any games, though. Iowa rallied from early-season losses for a Final Four run, making the national championship game as Clark was named the national player of the year. The Hawkeyes and Clark hope they benefit from this loss, too.
“It’s certainly one we can learn from and probably taught us a lot of lessons of how we can get better,” said Clark, who led Iowa with 24 points but struggled from field, going 9-of-32 overall and 2-of-16 from 3-point range.
