Exactly one week after a difficult road loss to the UConn Huskies, Chit-Chat Wright and the No. 10 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-1) played their best game of the young season, handling the No. 8 Vanderbilt Commodores (4-1) their first lost of the season courtesy of a 75-65 win Sunday afternoon in an alleged neutral site game in Sioux City, Iowa.
Don’t let the final score deceive you — Vanderbilt fought to the end, but this game was all Iowa, all afternoon. It was Iowa’s most complete game of the season, resulting
in the team spending almost the entirety of the game with a 15+ point lead.
Chit-Chat Wright led Iowa in scoring with another phenomenal performance, scoring 16 points and adding 4 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals. Ava Heiden, a week removed from a difficult performance against UConn that was primarily spent in foul trouble, had a tremendous game, logging a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Amari Whiting also had her best game of the season on both ends of the floor, scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds of her own. Dani Carnegie, who came off the bench for the first time this season with some kind of apparent injury, rounded out Iowa’s double-digit scorers with 10 points.
Iowa’s offense looked much improved from a week ago, but the defensive performance was the star of the show. The Hawkeyes absolutely stifled the Commodores, particularly from deep. Vanderbilt didn’t make a 3-pointer until late in the third quarter, and went 3-19 for 16% from deep on the day. Iowa’s rebounding efforts were also much improved from a week ago, to the tune of out-rebounding Vanderbilt 49-38 on the day.
Iowa’s ball movement looked much improved from a week ago against UConn and it made a huge difference, allowing the Hawkeyes to jump out to an early 10-5 lead in the first 3 minutes of the game. It allowed Iowa’s guards, particularly Wright, to get open at the top of the key, which resulted in a much stronger performance from deep than we’ve seen yet this season. For the second game in a row, the passing on offense was greatly improved for the Hawkeyes, who ended the day with 20 assists on 27 made field goals.
Having Heiden available and out of early foul trouble also helped Iowa’s ability to crash the glass on both ends of the floor, alongside a solid defensive performance from the team as a whole. Whiting played the biggest role here, drawing the defensive assignment on Mikayla Blakes, who did manage to score 20 points on the day, but on 6-22 shots and 1-7 from deep.
Multiple Hawkeyes got into the scoring column early, which resulted in a 19-7 lead in the first quarter. The Commodores even attempted to triple team Heiden at times, but it couldn’t stop the third year player, as Iowa ended the first quarter on a 14-0 run. Vanderbilt’s 10 first quarter points were the fewest points they’d scored all season,
It looked like Vanderbilt had made some adjustments between the first and second quarter as it forced Iowa into multiple early turnovers, but the Hawkeyes quickly settled in once again, getting the lead up to as many as 20 points. Vanderbilt began to wake up a bit from there, but Iowa was able to maintain its lead as the quarter went on, ending the half with a 39-20.
Vanderbilt came out of the half making solid adjustments, particularly on the defensive end, forcing Iowa into more early turnovers once again, and getting Heiden called for her second foul. But just when it seemed like the Commodores might turn this into a game, Wright hit a 3-pointer from the corner to get the lead right back to 18 points.
But Vanderbilt wouldn’t go away. Despite still having not made a shot from deep nearly halfway through the third quarter, Vanderbilt’s offense opened up in the second half, courtesy of Woolfolk, who was able to attack the post more aggressively with Heiden trying to not get called for her third foul. But just as they had before, Iowa responded, this time with a deep 3 pointer from Carnegie.
That three aside, however, the offense struggled with Carnegie in the lineup, going 1-7 from the field in her minutes during the third quarter as the guard attempted to find her scoring rhythm. When she returned to the bench? The Hawkeyes went on an immediate 8-2 run to get to get the offense flowing once again, and ended the 3rd quarter up 58-40.
Iowa maintained its lead, but the Commodores finally made their first 3 pointer in the fourth and made another quickly after that, cutting Iowa’s lead to 12 with 6:16 left to play. In a moment that summarized how the day went for Vanderbilt, the Commodores missed a wide-open layup that would have cut the lead to 10, which was followed by Carnegie’s second 3-pointer of the game on the other end of the floor that iced the game.
There remain things to clean up for sure for this team — Iowa didn’t shoot the ball well at all and also struggled at the charity stripe — but make no mistake, this team still has yet to play its best basketball.
Regardless, this was a statement win for an Iowa team looking to make a deep run when the calendar turns to March, and this performance showed they’re capable of doing just that.
