Naz Hillmon sets Michigan basketball mark, but Wolverines miss out on B1G title in rout
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Caitlin Clark had 38 points and 11 assists and No. 22 Iowa clinched a share of the Big Ten championship with a 104-80 win over No. 5 Michigan on Sunday.
It’s the first conference regular-season title since 2008 for the Hawkeyes (20-7, 14-4 Big Ten), who shared the championship with Ohio State.
Monika Czinano added 19 points for Iowa. Gabbie Marshall had 14.
Clark, who came into the game as the nation’s leading scorer at 27.1 points per game, had a career-high 46 points against the Wolverines in a 98-90 loss on February 6. She was just as effective in this game, hitting 11 of 18 shots from the field, including 8 of 11 in 3-pointers.
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Michigan (22-5, 13-4) had a chance to win the title outright. The Wolverines opened the game with an 11-4 run and led by 11 points in the first quarter before the Hawkeyes took over.
Iowa had a 19-5 run to close the first half and take a 53-39 halftime lead. Clark had two 3-pointers in the span of 23 seconds in the run, while the Wolverines missed 10 of their last 12 shots in the half.
Michigan got to within 67-59 with two minutes to play in the third quarter. But Clark had another burst of back-to-back 3-pointers in a 16-second stretch, and the Hawkeyes kept their double-digit lead the rest of the game.
It was the most points scored this season against the Wolverines, who had the top scoring defense in the Big Ten at 59.8 points per game.
“Iowa played unbelievable,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. “They made 16 threes — it’s hard to counter that. That’s a pretty special night for them.”
Naz Hillmon had 18 points and 15 rebounds for Michigan. Laila Phelia had 16 points. Emily Kiser had 12. Maddie Nolan had 11.
The Wolverines finished a half-game out of a tie for first place because their Feb. 3 game at Illinois was postponed because of travel issues caused by a winter storm. The game was not rescheduled.
“Yeah, it’s pretty crummy, huh?” Barnes Arico said.
She pointed out how the Wolverines had two wins over Maryland, beat Ohio State twice, and had a win over Iowa.
“The reality is we didn’t get to play the game,” Barnes Arico said. “We did everything we needed to do during the course of the year. We’re not co-Big Ten champs, so that’s pretty crummy, because our schedule was arguably the toughest schedule in the league.”
Hillmon's milestone
With the double-double, Hillmon became the first player in Michigan history — man or woman — to have 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career.
Hillmon has 2,079 points and 1,008 rebounds.
The big picture
The Hawkeyes, who will be the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament, head into the postseason having won four consecutive games and five of their last six.
Michigan, which tied with Maryland for third place in the conference, has lost three of its past five.