'Not Iowa basketball': Caitlin Clark, No. 2 Hawkeyes struggle in loss to Kansas State

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa tugged and tugged, trying to pull itself through the mud as Carver-Hawkeye Arena pumped in hard-earned noise alongside. A basketball masterpiece, this was not. They don't all have to be in a long season.

A choppy flow and little offensive rhythm dominated Thursday's sizable showdown with Kansas State, testing No. 2 Iowa from start to finish in a way not seen yet this year. The stabilizing run Iowa needed never came.

For the second straight year, Kansas State saddled the Hawkeyes with an unsettling loss early in the non-conference slate. Thursday's 65-58 stumble saw Iowa (3-1) and Caitlin Clark play uncomfortably for 40 minutes, unable to find the winning ingredients like she has so many times before.

"That was just not Iowa basketball," said Clark, who had a game-high 24 points but finished just 9-for-32 shooting and 2-for-16 from deep. "Me, as a point guard, I have to take responsibility for that. I have to get us into our offense a little better. I have to have a little better shot selection."

Even with Iowa's uphill battle, Kansas State (3-0) didn't take its first lead of the fourth quarter until two Ayoka Lee free throws with 1:12 remaining handed the Wildcats a 59-58 advantage. From there, Clark missed four shots on Iowa's final three possessions as Kansas State inched away. Two Wildcats free throws with 9.3 seconds to go cemented this stunning upset.

Clark finished 1-for-10 in the fourth quarter en route to her first collegiate game with 20-plus misses, the primary reason why Iowa failed to reach 60 points for the first time since Feb. 13, 2020, at Maryland. Overall, the Hawkeyes had just two fastbreak points on a night where no one outside of Clark took double-digit shots.

After a seesawing affair that ended with a grueling one-point loss last year in Manhattan, Kansas, the Hawkeyes knew Kansas State would show up again on the return trip to Iowa City. Iowa needed more than their superstar to survive this one.

"We just have to give other people more opportunities to shoot threes and create opportunities for them to shine," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "We really aren't giving people opportunities to shine like they're capable of."

Things seemed stabilized as crunch time approached. After a methodical 13-0 run that began late in the third quarter and spilled into the fourth that lasted more than seven minutes, Iowa chipped away at a seven-point deficit and morphed it into a 48-42 advantage with 9:04 remaining. But that did little to comfort a raucous building down the stretch.

The Hawkeyes' cushion never exceeded five points in the final five minutes, requiring Iowa to repeatedly answer Kansas State with tension mounting. Once the Wildcats finally broke through, the night's various issues became glaring.

Clark provided the perfect snapshot of Iowa's opening sputter late in the second quarter, unleashing an emphatic yell cloaked in frustration after Iowa's first trey of the night finally fell. The Hawkeyes opened 0-for-8 from deep — while Clark missed 10 of her first 14 shots — setting an ominous tone for the action ahead.

Still, Iowa has earned the benefit of the doubt, particularly at home, when it comes to emerging victorious amid grueling action. With a solid test Sunday against Drake (3-0), the Hawkeyes can't wait around long to transform this stumble from disappointing to beneficial.

"There are going to be nights where I don't shoot the ball really well, and I don't think I really helped myself getting to the basket and taking advantage of fouls when we needed to," Clark said. "But we can still win games when we don't shoot the ball well. So there was a lot of other areas we can also improve on."

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.