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Caitlin Clark prepares for a basket against the Holy Cross Crusaders in the first round of the women’s NCAA tournament.
CNN
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Caitlin Clark scored 27 points as her Iowa Hawkeyes won their season opener March madness SATURDAY.
Clark started slowly before finally finding her range as she proved to be the catalyst for the 91-65. victory for No. 1 seed Iowa against the No. 16 Holy Cross Crusaders at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
The 22-year-old missed nine of her first 11 shots, but still affected the game in other ways, adding 10 assists and eight rebounds in a complete performance.
After the first round victory, Clark expressed how the first quarter “frustrated” the entire team, but they managed to get back on track shortly after.
“It’s a game you want to dominate from the start,” Clark told reporters. “Maybe we played with a little rust. They really packed the paint – they sat four people in there, and it’s really hard to drive to the basket.
“We really started to run our offense in the second quarter. … I think I was a little frustrated, but I think that comes from knowing what it takes to be where we want to be.
Kate Martin added 15 points with 14 rebounds and Addi O’Grady chipped in with 14 points.
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Clark drives to the basket against Holy Cross defenders.
Clark, who became the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer during the regular season, increased her career point total to 3,798.
Iowa advances to the second round where it will face No. 8 seed West Virginia in the round of 32 on Monday.
Elsewhere, a referee was removed from duty at halftime of the first round of the women’s NCAA tournament between No. 3 NC State and No. 14 Chattanooga due to a “substantive conflict.”
According to a statement from a pool reporter: “There was a change of referee at halftime of the Chattanooga-NC State first round game because it was learned after the start of the game that referee 2 Tommi Paris had a background conflict that, if known, would prevent him from working on this assigned game.
Ben McKeown/AP
Tommi Paris (left) watches NC State’s Saniya Rivers handle the ball during the first half of the game against Chattanooga.
“The decision was made to move Angelica Suffren, who had worked the first match of the session, to Referee 2, as this provided the most on-field experience and allowed the game to maintain a team of full referees, as well as a reserve. »
According to a Paris profileshe holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
NC State then comfortably beat Chattanooga 64-45 and advanced to the second round of March Madness where they will face Tennessee.
