BLOOMINGTON — The last time IU women’s basketball was in Iowa City, the Hoosiers left with a bad taste in their mouth.

It was Feb. 26, 2023, the last game of the regular season. The Hoosiers had already won their first Big Ten regular season championship in 40 years, and they were leading the Hawkeyes, 85-83, with just seconds left. In a last-ditch effort to win the game, Iowa guard Kate Martin inbounded the ball to Hawkeyes superstar Caitlin Clark, who was open because Indiana guard Chloe Moore-McNeil tripped.

Clark heaved an off-balance 3-pointer as soon as the ball hit her hands, and it swished through the net as the buzzer sounded. Game over, 86-85 Iowa.

“Obviously, you know, Chloe, she fell and she was a little bit delayed getting to Caitlin,” IU coach Teri Moren said Friday morning. “As a coaching staff, we probably feel like we could have, we might have made a different decision to put somebody on the ball. All those things go through your mind, but at the end of the day, you can't change any of it.”

That loss was the first of a skid for the Hoosiers, who ended up losing three of their final five games. They fell in the Big Ten tournament semifinals to Ohio State, and had a shocking loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

But that Iowa loss — and those subsequent losses — gives IU extra fire coming into its biggest matchup of the year Saturday when the Hoosiers return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“I think it’s just two really great programs — that have great players inside of both respected programs — that look forward to this,” Moren said following IU’s win over Penn State on Wednesday. “I mean, it’s become a rivalry. That’s what it’s become.”

No. 13 IU and No. 3 Iowa have gone toe-to-toe in their past seven matchups, dating back to the 2020-21 season. IU is 3-4 in those matchups, but three of those losses came in the 2021-22 season, when Iowa swept the regular-season series and beat IU in the Big Ten tournament.

“Up until last year, I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said of the budding rivalry. “But certainly, when you’re competing for championships against people, they become rivalries.”

The game will be aired on national television on Fox with popular play-by-play broadcaster Gus Johnson on the call — and for good reason. Iowa and IU are the last two remaining undefeated Big Ten teams, and both are on double-digit win streaks.

“It’s a really good opportunity for us to showcase nationally what this sport is all about,” Bluder said.

IU (14-1, 5-0) is on a 13-game win streak and has not lost since its second game of the season on Nov. 12, 2023, when it fell to Stanford, 96-64. Iowa (16-1, 5-0) is also on a 13-game win streak, with their sole loss coming to Kansas State, 65-58, on Nov. 16.

And who can forget about Clark, the player who has captivated basketball fans? Outside of her buzzer-beater last season, Clark has had success against IU. She’s scored more than 30 points four of the seven times the two teams have played, and averages 28 points per game through all those matchups. She has also grabbed 5.4 rebounds and dished out 6.7 assists against IU.

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The Hoosiers, like many other teams across the nation, haven’t necessarily figured out how to guard the best player in the nation.

So, they’ll go to Plan B: shut down everyone else, including fellow starters Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall, Hannah Stuelke and Molly Davis.

“The one thing about both programs is that we know each other quite well,” Moren said. “I don’t know that anybody has figured out how to guard Cait, I don’t think anybody has done that. But we’ll make sure that it’ll be sort of similar to what we’ve done in the past. We’ve done a pretty decent job, knowing that she’s going to score. It’s just those other guys, the Martins, Gabbie Marshall, and Stuelke now. And not allowing them to be a part of scoring a lot of points, because you know Caitlin is going to get hers.”

Of course, IU has weapons of its own. As a team, Indiana leads the nation with a .514 shooting clip. Senior center Mackenzie Holmes dominates the paint, averaging 19.7 points per game on 66.5% shooting — sixth in the nation.

Sara Scalia is an archer from 3-point range, averaging a 44.6% mark from beyond the arc. She has made 45 3-point shots so far this season — nearly double her closest teammate, Sydney Parrish, who has made 27. Parrish also broke out of her shooting funk just in time for the top-ranked matchup, spreading out the floor even more for opposing defenses.

“It’s difficult, because you’ve got to pick your poison,” Bluder said. “Three is greater than two, so we’ve got to focus on that. It's really difficult because they have such a good post and such good 3-point shooters on the outside, I mean, they’re shooting 38% from 3-point range, that’s really good.”

Of course, the weather will have to cooperate for the game to actually happen. With the blizzard in Iowa on Friday afternoon, IU is planning to fly into Cedar Rapids — a half hour north of Iowa City — on Saturday morning. With it being a projected one-hour flight, IU will take off from Bloomington at 10 a.m. ET for the 8 p.m. tip-off.

If all goes well, Saturday night, all eyes will be in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana women's basketball vs. Iowa, Caitlin Clark a primetime matchup