IOWA CITY, Iowa - After a tough second half, the Michigan State women's basketball fell to No. 9/11 Iowa, 88-61, in the Big Ten opener on Sunday at Hawkeye-Carver Arena.
Michigan State slides to 6-4 overall and 0-1 in Big Ten action, while Iowa improves to 5-1 this season and 1-0 in league play. The Spartans have now lost to two-straight ranked teams losing to No. 24/25 Notre Dame earlier this week.
Senior guard
Nia Clouden had her streak of 20-point games halted at six, scoring 18 points to lead MSU. Freshman guard
DeeDee Hagemann had another strong offensive showing with 12 points to go along with six assists. Graduate forward
Tamara Farquhar also reached double figures with 10 points.
Iowa was led by a triple-double by Caitin Clark who scored 24 points to go along with 12 assists and 10 rebounds.
Both teams got off to a fast start with Hagemann and Clouden scoring four early to take a 10-9 lead before the first media timeout. Iowa used a 7-0 run to jump out to a 16-10 advantage with under three minutes left in the period. Clark suffered her second foul at the end of the first quarter to put her on the bench. At the end of the first period with three players with four points, MSU trailed 20-14.
In the second quarter a McKenna Warnock trey gave the Hawkeyes their first double digit lead 25-15. MSU used a 6-0 run to trim it to a 27-23 lead with five minutes left in the half. Iowa then went cold missing six-straight shots, but Clark made a clutch trey to stop the run. Clouden and Clark lived up to the hype in the first half. Clouden scored eight-straight points to get MSU back in it, while the MSU defense came up with some big stops. Behind Clouden's 14 first-half points, the Spartans trailed the Hawkeyes 39-37 at the half.
An early 8-0 run in the third period stretched the Iowa lead and forced an MSU timeout at the 7:51 mark. Iowa out-scored Michigan State 18-3 over 4:09 to take a 58-42 lead with just under five minutes left in the period. MSU was held without a field goal for over three minutes period belonged to the Hawkeyes.
Iowa scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter. The Hawkeyes out-scored the Spartans 49-24 in the second half. Farquhar scored eight-straight points at the end of the game as a bright spot in the period.
The Spartans return home for only one game last week, taking on Illinois on Thursday, 9 at 7 p.m.
Post-Game Notes vs. Iowa
- Michigan State is now 20-20 in Big Ten openers, having won seven of their 11. MSU is now 9-6 in league openers in Coach Merchant's 15 seasons. Last season, the Spartans won their opener in Minneapolis, 81-68 over the Gophers. The last time that Michigan State played Iowa in a B1G opener was to start the 2018-19, defeating the No. 16 Hawkeyes, 84-70 in East Lansing.
- Clouden had her streak of six-straight 20-point games halted, scoring 18 points against Iowa. She has led the team in scoring in eight-straight games and in eight of the team's 10 games.
- Freshman DeeDee Hagemann scored 12 points, marking her fifth double-figures scoring game of the season. She also added six assists, which was is her fourth game with at least five assists.
- The Spartans fall to 0-2 when shooting below 40.0 percent from the field after shooting 39.0 percent against the Hawkeyes
- Clouden's 18 points give her 1,475 for her career, holding down the No. 11 spot and closing in on the No. 10 spot on the MSU career points list, held by Kristen Rasmussen (1996-2000) ... her two assists gives her 376 helpers for her career, holding on to the No. 10 spot. She is six assists away from passing Kim Archer (1983-88) for the No. 9 spot. Archer had 381 assists during her time in the Green and White.
