By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY — Kate Martin didn’t need the reminder that Iowa’s second-round NCAA tournament game against West Virginia was going to be her farewell to Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“Oh, geez, why did you say that?” Martin, Iowa’s sixth-year guard, said with a laugh.

The countdown to the last dance at their home arena is something that Martin, senior guard Caitlin Clark, and fifth-year guard Gabbie Marshall aren’t wanting to hear, even if the clicks of time are pounding in their heads.

They want to take this journey all the way to the national championship game this season, like they did last season, only with a better ending.

But to get there, they’ll have to say goodbye in front of a sellout crowd and oh, by the way, beat the Mountaineers on Monday night.

The second part is their focus. The first part, Martin and Clark said on Sunday, can’t be on their minds right now.

“Just staying in the moment,” Martin said. “And we can deal with that after the game, but first we’re obviously focused on getting a victory tomorrow and just enjoying every single moment with our teammates, trying to have fun out there and smile a lot and just play some basketball.

Yeah, I don’t think it will hit me until the season’s really over. But I feel lucky that we’ve gotten two extra home games on our home court here.”

“Like Kate said, it’s all business,” said Clark, whose record-setting career includes shots from just about everywhere on the Carver-Hawkeye floor. “We’re going to be locked in. I don’t think any of us seniors are going to be thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is our last game. I think the environment is too competitive. You’re wanting to win so hard that’s not really what you’re focused on.”

Marshall admitted she’ll look around and savor the expected sellout crowd.

“I try to do that every game,” she said. “Especially the second time you run out of the tunnel and it is packed and there are no open seats. I look around and I am just like, ‘wow, this is amazing.’ What the coaches have built and what this team has built, it is pretty special.”

It’s the third consecutive tournament in which the Hawkeyes have been host to the first weekend, the third consecutive tournament in which they reached the second round. They weren’t ready for the crucible of the postseason when they were derailed by 10th seed Creighton in the second round, they were more than ready for it last year when they survived a rough-and-tumble game against Georgia that was a sign of physicality that was coming all the way until the national championship loss to LSU.

“The biggest thing our team needs to remember is we’ve worked for this, we’ve earned it,” Clark said. “Sure, there’s pressure, but it’s not anything you shy away from. We’ve performed to that level all year long, and these are some of the most fun moments of basketball right now.”

“Those kids, they know what they’re doing,” West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg said. “They’re veteran. They have been here. (Iowa coach Lisa Bluder) has done a phenomenal job for many, many years here. So it’s a well-oiled machine.”

Machines can break down, and West Virginia’s plan is to throw a pressure defense at the Hawkeyes — the Mountaineers’ 8.75 turnover margin leads the nation, they are second nationally in steals per game at 13.8, and force 23.9 turnovers per game, third best in the nation.

“For us, I guess we have to try to get them to leak some oil some way and find a few things we can take advantage of,” Kellogg said. “We probably need them to have a little bit of a bad shooting night and not shoot it so well and slow them down at times.”

But he also knew that’s easier said than accomplished.

“Yeah, this is elite, as elite of an offensive group as I’ve ever seen,” Kellogg said.

The Hawkeyes have been built for this, from the loss to Creighton to the run of last season to this season’s nationwide tour of packed arenas, frenzied crowds and teams wanting to take a swing at taking down a heavyweight that was near the top at the national polls all season.

Clark has been the star whose every shot was an eraser to the sport’s record books. She is college basketball’s all-time leading scorer, and every game from here until the end turns her numbers like a telethon tote board.

“I know when I take off the jersey whenever my last game is, I can hold my head high and reflect back on a lot of great memories inside this place,” Clark said.

“Their impact has been amazing, and it’s not only an impact on our program, it’s an impact on the entire state of Iowa,” Bluder said. “It’s an entire … our community, our university. I think women’s basketball nationally. I truly believe that this team has elevated the play, the enthusiasm, the excitement for women’s basketball across the country.”

Everyone tried not to think about the goodbyes, yet they know they are inevitable.

​​“You feel like they go slow when you are in the heat of the season, but once you are out of it you’re like ‘Dang, that was really a whole season and postseason?’” Marshall said. “That felt like it was the snap of my fingers, and it was over. It has been some of the best five years of my life. I have met great people along the way, including some of my best friends that I will have for the rest of my life. It has been all worth it.”

“I hope we inspired a lot of people,” Clark said. “I hope we brought a lot of people joy, whether it’s young girls, young boys, older men and women. I think we have. I think we’ve touched generations across the board.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely bittersweet.” Martin said. “I feel really grateful to have extended my time into six years and I’ve gotten to play a lot of games out here on this court, and I feel really grateful for that.”

Bluder, though, knew she couldn’t be as sentimental.

“I am not thinking about tomorrow being their last game. I can’t,” she said. “If you start thinking about that and focusing on that, you’re not focusing on the task at hand. So that’s something I’ll think about after the game, but it’s not something that I really want to prepare myself for now.”

Photo: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark reacts to a foul call during Saturday’s NCAA Tournament game against Holy Cross. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)