Iowa Wins 2023 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament Title

MINNEAPOLIS (March 5, 2023) – The University of Iowa earned its fifth Big Ten Conference Tournament title and second in as many years with a 105-72 victory over Ohio State in the championship game on Sunday afternoon before a record-setting crowd of 9,505 fans at the Target Center in Minneapolis.
 
With Sunday’s victory, the Hawkeyes (26-6) will receive the Big Ten’s automatic berth into the 2023 NCAA Championship. The full 68-team field for this year’s tournament will be announced March 12 at 8 p.m. (ET) live on ESPN.
 
Iowa junior guard Caitlin Clark registered the third triple-double in Big Ten Tournament history (first in the championship game) with 30 points, 10 rebounds and 17 assists, the latter figure also a title-game record and second-most in any Big Ten Tournament game. Clark was subsequently voted the tournament’s Jim and Kitty Delany Most Outstanding Player by the media, becoming the third two-time recipient of the award (she also won in 2022) along with Shereka Wright of Purdue (2003-04) and Jantel Lavender of Ohio State (2009-11).
 
Joining Clark on the Big Ten All-Tournament Team were her teammates Monika Czinano and Gabbie Marshall, as well as Cotie McMahon and Taylor Thierry of Ohio State, and Diamond Miller of Maryland.
 
Iowa set Big Ten Tournament championship records with its 105 points, 33-point margin of victory and its .621 field-goal percentage (the latter matching the record for any tournament game). Czinano also set a field-goal percentage record for any Big Ten Tournament contest by making 11-of-12 shots (.917) in Sunday’s win.
 
The Hawkeyes took much of the suspense out of this year’s Big Ten Tournament championship game by outscoring Ohio State, 26-9 in the opening quarter and 61-24 in the first half. Clark had 23 points, five rebounds and nine assists at halftime, while as a team, Iowa made 21-of-29 shots (.724) in the first half.
 
Ohio State (25-7) was led by Taylor Mikesell, who scored a team-high 24 points, and Big Ten Freshman of the Year Cotie McMahon, who chipped in with 23 points.
 
Sunday’s championship game attendance of 9,505 was not only the largest crowd for any session in Big Ten Tournament history (the previous mark was 9,417 in the 2004 title contest), but it capped off a remarkable week for the Big Ten Tournament’s first-ever appearance in Minneapolis. A record-setting 47,923 fans attended this year’s tournament, surpassing the previous mark of 42,631 fans set last year. This year’s average of 6,846 fans per session was also the fifth-highest “per session” attendance average in Big Ten Tournament history and highest since 2008, when the tournament averaged 7,119 fans per session. In addition, three of the 10 largest single-session crowds in the 30-year history of the Big Ten Tournament occurred this week in Minneapolis — Saturday’s semifinal attendance of 9,375 is third in the event’s history (largest for a semifinal) and Friday’s evening quarterfinal attendance of 8,577 is ninth all-time and was the most ever for a quarterfinal session.
 
Big Ten Conference (bigten.org) is an association of world-class universities whose member institutions share a common mission of research, graduate, professional and undergraduate teaching, and public service. Founded in 1896, Big Ten Conference has sustained a comprehensive set of shared practices and policies that enforce the priority of academics in the lives of students competing in intercollegiate athletics and emphasize the values of integrity, fairness, and competitiveness. The broad-based programs of the 14 Big Ten Conference institutions will provide over $200 million in direct financial support to more than 9,800 students for more than 11,000 participation opportunities on 350 teams in 42 different sports. Big Ten Conference sponsors 28 official conference sports, 14 for men and 14 for women, including the addition of men’s ice hockey and men’s and women’s lacrosse since 2013.