Iowa WBB's Caitlin Clark tribute, upset of No. 4 USC have fans in heaven

Yesterday at 05:19 PM

2024-25 hasn’t gone exactly how Iowa women’s basketball would have hoped in its first year without Caitlin Clark and former head coach Lisa Bluder, but the Hawkeyes still have some of that magic of the glory days in them. On Sunday, Clark and Bluder were back in the building at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for her jersey retirement ceremony, which took place at the end of Iowa’s clash with No. 4 USC.

"There will never be another Caitlin Clark. And there will never be another No. 22!"

Caitlin's Iowa jersey gets officially retired

(via @CBBonFOX)pic.twitter.com/DrM7zabfK2

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 2, 2025

The ceremony to honor one of the all-time greats in women’s college basketball wasn’t the only thing that the fans got to cheer about. Iowa played easily its best game of the season to pull off the improbable upset and take down USC 76-69 in one of the most shocking results of this college basketball season.

After the game ended and Clark’s jersey retirement was in the books, Iowa fans took to social media to boast about what was a joyous day in Des Moines.

“Them Iowa players would be damned if they lost in front of Caitlin, man. What a game for them,” one fan wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Great win & way to do it when the goat got her jersey retired …. Love it & Caitlin got to witness it,” another fan wrote.

Iowa was led by its new star, Lucy Olsen, in this one. The Villanova transfer had a massive day, outdueling JuJu Watkins to the tune of 28 points on 10-for-18 shooting without making a 3-pointer. Time and time again in the second half, Olsen was able to come up with a huge bucket to keep USC at bay and keep the Trojans from making a run late in the game.

Watkins had another strong day herself, finishing with 27 points on 8-for-22 shooting. However, USC took a while to get going offensively — it scored just four points in the first quarter — and it never was able to fully recover.

Now, this Iowa women’s basketball team must use this win to build some momentum and go on a bit of a hot streak in February if it wants to make the NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes are now 15-7 on the season but just 5-6 in conference play, so they will need to stack some wins if they want to end up on the right side of the bubble. A marquee win like this one over a top five team is a great start.

The post Iowa WBB’s Caitlin Clark tribute, upset of No. 4 USC have fans in heaven appeared first on ClutchPoints.