IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Lauren Jensen scored 19 points against her former team, including the go-ahead 3 with 12.9 seconds left that lifted No. 10 Creighton over Caitlyn Clark and second-seeded Iowa 64-62 Sunday in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament.
Iowa (24-8), which shared the Big Ten regular-season title and won the conference tournament, had two chances to tie the game in the closing three seconds. Monika Czinano missed a layup with three seconds left, then Kate Martin missed a putback as the buzzer sounded.
Jensen, who played at Iowa last season as a freshman before transferring, had nine of her points in the fourth quarter. She had a layup with 1:26 left to cut Iowa’s lead to 62-60, then her 3-pointer gave the Bluejays a lead. After Clark missed a layup Emma Ronziek made the second of two free throws for the final margin.
Payton Brotzki added 13 points for the Bluejays (22-9), who advance to their first-ever Sweet 16. They were the seventh double-digit seed to win in the women’s NCAA Tournament so far, matching the record set in 1998.
Monika Czinano led Iowa with 27 points. Caitlin Clark, who came into the game as the nation’s leading scorer at 27.4 points per game, finished with 15. Clark had a rough game, shooting just 4-for-19 from the field, including missing all eight shots in the second half.
Creighton led by as much as 12 points in the first half before a six-point Iowa run in the final two minutes cut the Bluejays’ lead to 38-32 at halftime. The Hawkeyes struggled offensively outside of Clark and Czinano, who had Iowa’s first 26 points of the game.
ANOTHER IOWA CONNECTION
Creighton guard Rachel Saunders is an Iowa City native. Her father, Mike, played football at Iowa.
SELLOUT CROWD
Both sessions were sellouts, with an attendance of 14,382. The Iowa site had the best attendance of the 16 sites for the first round. Arizona was second with 9,573.
BIG PICTURE
Creighton: Coach Jim Flanery said on Sunday that playing in this game in front of a national television audience would be a chance to showcase his program, and the Bluejays took advantage of the spotlight to reach the regional semifinals.
Iowa: The Hawkeyes had the homecourt advantage, but struggled to get a lead against Creighton until late. The program had made back-to-back appearances in the second weekend of the tournament.
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