Jan Jensen and the Iowa Women’s Basketball team dropped their first game of B1G play in the first game of the team’s west coast road trip, falling 81-69 (not nice) to USC in Los Angeles. Iowa is now 18-3
on the season and 9-1 in conference play.
In Iowa’s first game after losing senior Taylor McCabe to a torn ACL on Sunday, it was evident that it might take the team a little bit more time than we thought to adjust to its new reality, as the Hawkeyes struggled on both ends of the floor. The offense looked discombobulated and it resulted in early, unforced turnovers that turned into easy points for the Trojans, who also clogged the paint and did not let Hannah Stuelke or Ava Heiden ever get into Jan Jensen’s preferred post-first offense.
USC senior guard Kara Dutton led all scorers with 25 points on the night, torching the Hawkeyes in just about every way she wanted. She was aided by her star freshman teammate Jazzy Davidson, who dropped 21. Heiden was Iowa’s scoring lead with 13 points and 8 rebounds, while Stuelke had a quiet 10 points and 1 rebound. Journey Houston added 12, and Taylor Stremlow added 11 off the bench, while Addie Deal struggled in her first start, not finding the scoreboard.
It was a tough start for Iowa from the tip, as the Trojans jumped out to an early 5-2 lead as Iowa dealt with 3 early game turnovers in the first 2:30. Stuelke was called for her second foul barely 3 minutes into the game and sent to the bench as the Trojans quickly expanded the lead to 9-2, forcing Jensen to call an early timeout.
The Hawkeyes struggled to get any early looks, and when they did, they were bad, as the combination of Stuelke on the bench and USC focusing hard on keeping the ball out of the post, made the offense look out of rhythm. Houston was tremendous once again in her extended minutes, hitting a couple big jumpers to cut into USC’s lead.
A beautiful shot off the left side of the glass from Heiden cut USC’s lead to 2 with just over 3 minutes left in the first quarter, but the Trojans continued to hit from deep, getting the lead out to 23-13 with a minute left in the quarter. The early deficit forced Jensen to bring Stuelke back in with two fouls before the quarter ended.
The Hawkeyes looked completely discombobulated on offense, letting the turnovers pile up while the Trojans continued to hit from deep on the other end of the court, ending the first quarter trailing 28-13 as the Trojans had 9 points off 7 Hawkeye turnovers.
Iowa started the second quarter with a 3-pointer from Feuerbach but the Trojans continued to extend the lead in response. But late in the second quarter, a Stremlow step-back 3 followed up by a defensive stop and a Heiden layup cut the Trojan lead down to a manageable 10 points with 3:14 left in the half. Stremlow went on a mini tear of her own as Iowa ripped off a 10-2 run to get right back into the game, scoring all of her 11 first half points in the second quarter, as the Hawkeyes went into halftime with a manageable 43-37 deficit.
USC quickly got its lead back to double-digits to start the third quarter. But Stuelke, after a quiet first half, woke up, grabbing some quick rebounds and scoring 4 quick points that saw Iowa cut into the deficit once again. Davidson was called for her third foul with 6:30 to play in the third quarter, but Stuelke was as well seconds later. After struggling in the first half with Stuelke on the bench, Houston came in and made an immediate impact in the 3rd on the receiving end of dimes from Wright and Stremlow, respectively, as USC’s lead dwindled to 3.
As had occurred all game, as the momentum looked like it might shift to Iowa, USC responded with a huge shot from deep and ripped off an 11-0 run as the third quarter dwindled, getting back out to a 63-49 lead that ballooned to 19 as the third quarter ended.
Any chance of an Iowa comeback sputtered out early in the 4th quarter as the Trojans opened things up with yet another successful shot from deep, while the Hawkeyes still couldn’t get anything to drop. It is a frustrating loss for an Iowa team that has been found ways to win even when they’ve struggled in conference games to this point. It’s not a season ending loss by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s certainly a performance they’d like back.
It doesn’t get much easier either as UCLA awaits on Sunday, but the conference slate does get a bit easier after that. The Hawkeyes now have a couple days to regroup, figure some things out, and hopefully give the Bruins a run for their money on Sunday.
