Crusaders advanced with a 72-45 First Four victory over Tennessee-Martin on Thursday
What: No. 2 Iowa (29-4) vs. Holy Cross (21-12), NCAA women’s basketball tournament first round
When/where: 2 p.m. Saturday, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City
TV: ABC
Live stream: ESPN3
Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network affiliates
Iowa’s next game: Winner faces West Virginia or Princeton in the second round Monday (time TBA)
What to know: Saturday’s game will be Iowa’s first in 13 days (the Hawkeyes beat Nebraska in overtime in the Big Ten championship game March 10 at Minneapolis).
Holy Cross whipped Tennessee-Martin, 72-45, in a First Four game Thursday night at Carver. The Crusaders got out to a 45-24 lead by halftime and cruised behind 12 3-pointers.
Cara McCormick hit 7-of-10 3-pointers in that game and led all scorers with 23 points.
Bronagh Power-Cassidy leads Holy Cross at 16.7 points per game.
The Crusaders won the Patriot League regular-season championship (with an 11-7 league mark), then followed that with the league tournament title.
Iowa is a 1-seed in the Albany-2 Region. The Hawkeyes’ previous two 1-seeds came in 1988 and 1992.
One-seeds have a 115-1 record against 16-seeds since the NCAA expanded to 64 teams in 1994.
Caitlin Clark leads the nation in scoring (31.9 points per game) and assists (8.9 per game). She has totaled 3,771 points in her career.
A win would send Iowa to its second consecutive 30-win season. Last year’s team earned a school-record 31 victories.
The Hawkeyes are making their 30th NCAA appearance and have an all-time tournament record of 33-29. Holy Cross is in its 14th tournament and owns a 2-13 all-time mark.
This is the first meeting between the two programs.
West Virginia (24-7) and Princeton (25-4) play at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
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