After losing senior guard Taylor McCabe to a non-contact injury on the first possession of the game and facing an early 8-2 deficit directly afterwards, things looked dire for Jan Jensen and the Iowa Hawkeyes.
Instead, freshman Addie Deal came off the bench early to take over in McCabe’s absence and delivered her best performance of the year, leading her No. 10 ranked Hawkeye squad a to a 90-71 home win over the No. 12 Ohio State Buckeyes. The win gives Iowa a tremendous 18-2 record and 9-0 record in conference play ahead of a tough West coast road trip coming up later this week.
Deal finished the day with a new career high 20 points, and added in 5 assists and 3 rebounds. While her breakout performance will be the talk of the game, don’t let it take away from the performance from senior Hannah Stuelke, who continued her week of absolute dominance with an 18 point, 15 rebound performance for her second consecutive double-double. Ava Heiden also tallied 18 points as well, as the Hawkeyes outscored the Buckeyes significantly in the paint, to the tune of a 42-14 margin. Chit-Chat Wright added in 14, with most of those points coming late in the fourth quarter to seal the deal; Kylie Feuerbach dropped 8 points and 9 assists, and Taylor Stremlow had 8 points also off the bench for good measure.
It was easily Iowa’s most complete game of the year in every way. The aforementioned points in the paint, +18 rebounding margin (The Hawkeyes absolutely obliterated Ohio State on the glass early, out rebounding the Buckeyes 30-11 in the first half alone), and 33 bench points to 3 (though, considering McCabe literally played one possession, you can erase 20 of those points) all added up to complete domination for Iowa.
But it didn’t always seem like that would be the case after McCabe went down with a non-contact injury on the first possession, as the Buckeyes jumped out to a quick 8-2 run as Iowa struggled against the Ohio State press as the Buckeyes forced early turnovers. But Stuelke got to work in the paint and helped Iowa rip off a 6-0 run of their own to tie the game.
Iowa never trailed again.
For Ohio State, they couldn’t stay out of their own way, as Ava Watson was called for her second foul with just over 3 minutes left in the first quarter in the midst of a more than 3 minute scoring drought as Iowa went on an 12-0 run to jump out to an 20-11 lead, part of a 16-3 run that Iowa used to close out the first quarter.
Ohio State responded well to start the second quarter, cutting Iowa’s lead down to 4, but Feuerbach responded as she has many times before with two clutch shots from deep and a block on Cambridge on the next play. Every time Ohio State would cut into Iowa’s lead, the Hawkeyes responded, whether it was Wright grabbing an offensive rebound that led to a Stremow 3, or Deal getting an and-1 after being fouled shooting a midrange jumper.
But Iowa absolutely exploded to end the first half that effectively sealed the deal.
While her scoring was impressive, Deal’s passing was even better. On consecutive plays late in the second quarter, she broke Ohio State’s zone and found Stremlow and Wright, respectively, on the left corner for two consecutive 3-pointers that gave Iowa a 44-29 lead.
After getting worked early by Ohio State’s press, the Hawkeyes had figured things out by the start of the second quarter as Deal broke it for an easy layup to grab a 52-34 lead out of the break. Stuelke continued her domination, on offense, on the glass, and defensively as she guarded Cambridge; it added up to Iowa jumping out to a 20 point lead. The Buckeyes tried once again to cut into Iowa’s lead as they heated up from beyond the arc thanks primarily to Cambridge, but Iowa learned their lesson from Maryland and did not let the Buckeyes eat into the lead for long.
Up 17 with 3 minutes to play, things even looked a little dicey after Cambridge made another 3, but Wright responded immediately with a 3 and a beautiful pass to a cutting Heiden. The Buckeyes responded again with a 3…but Feuerbach found Wright again on the next play for another 3 that sealed the deal.
I feel like a broken record because I feel like I’ve literally written this after every big win, but today it was true that this was Iowa’s best game of the year by far, despite the unexpected loss of a starter. I think that this team obviously prefers to play at home (who doesn’t?), but the wins keep coming regardless.
The sky is truly the limit for this team, and I feel like they still might have their best basketball in front of them. Now let’s hope for another successful West coast road trip to keep this run rolling.
GO HAWKS!
