Down 17 points as the third quarter neared its end, Chit-Chat Wright and the No. 11 ranked Iowa Hawkeyes ripped off a 26-12 run to cut Iowa State’s lead down to 3, but the Hawkeyes couldn’t complete the comeback, falling 74-69 to the No. 10 Iowa State Cyclones in Ames. The Cyclones are now 11-0 on the season, with the Hawkeyes 9-1.
Wright led the Hawkeyes in scoring with 21 points on 7-14 shooting, 3 assists and 2 steals. Hannah Stuelke had a quiet night until late, finishing the night with only 10
points, but continuing her tear on the boards, grabbing 15 rebounds. Taylor McCabe and Kylie Feuerbach had 11 and 10 points respectively, while Ava Heiden could only manage 8 due to foul trouble throughout the game.
The game started out at a break-neck, back-and-forth pace, with the Hawkeyes getting out to an early 10-8 lead with 7 min remaining in the first quarter. Crooks was lights out to start the game, hitting 8 quick points before the halfway mark of the first quarter, but was quieted a bit from there, not scoring again until nearly midway through the second quarter.
Up 23-18 to start the second quarter, Heiden was called for her second foul with 8:54 left in first half. Hays got early minutes in response and struggled against Crooks, missing a basket badly and then giving up an and-1 to Crooks on the immediately following possession. This made Jensen move Stuelke to the 5, a move that worked wonders last year against Crooks, with Journey Houston getting minutes at the 4.
As we’ve seen in other games against high quality opponents, the Hawkeye offense had multiple bad possessions where the offense looked disjointed at best as Iowa State suddenly got out to a 33-26 lead, one of the first moments it appeared the Cyclones might come away with a big win.
But the Hawkeyes were able to respond with a quick rally of their own thanks to Wright and Houston, and the lead was quickly cut to two, before a Stuelke pass to a cutting McCabe tied the game with 1:20 in the half. After a missed bunny from the Cyclones on the opposite end, Stuelke dished again to Houston for the Hawkeyes to regain the lead, which would end up being their last lead of the night as the game went into half tied at 35.
to start the second half, Heiden was literally immediately called for a horrible third foul, and it allowed Iowa State to quickly turn the tied game into a 6-point lead. In response, Jensen called a timeout, put Heiden back in, and McCabe responded with a 3 out of the timeout.
Iowa couldn’t cut into the newly established ISU lead, as the Cyclones held a 48-40 edge with 4:57 left in the third quarter, and it got worse from there. the offense fell completely flat once again after Heiden was called for her 4th foul (on another absolutely horrid call) and Iowa State continued to score. There wasn’t a bucket to be found from anyone wearing black and gold and it seemed like the Cyclones suddenly couldn’t miss, and the previously tied game suddenly turned into a 61-48 Cyclone lead.
However, instead of rolling over, the Hawkeyes woke up in the 4th quarter. There was a new defensive tenacity from Stuelke, shots started to fall from deep for McCabe and Feuerbach, and suddenly the Cyclone lead, once 17, dwindled to single digits. The fouls began piling up on Crooks and the shots stopped falling from the Cyclones as Heiden suddenly woke up, making a huge play off a cutting Feuerbach assist to cut the lead to 5.
Iowa State had 0 field goals in 5 minutes of play as the Hawkeyes went on a 12-1 run. But the run was abruptly halted as Heiden was called for her 5th foul with 4:18 left in the game.
It looked like hope was lost as Iowa State took a 70-64 lead, but Wright once again made a huge play from deep to cut the lead down to 3. Williams made a big shot on the other end of the floor, but a clutch basket from Stuelke brought it back to a 3-point game with under a minute to go. Williams got to the line on the ensuing possession but missed both, giving Iowa the ball back, down 72-69.
But Iowa couldn’t find the basket — or a friendly whistle from the officiating crew, and sent Crooks to the line, where she went 1-2, putting the Hawkeyes down by 4. On Iowa’s next possession, McCabe got a good look off a screen and was wide open on the right corner, but rushed her shot a bit and it rimmed out to the left, sealing Iowa’s fate.
All in all, it’s a frustrating loss, but one that could have been much worse had the Hawkeyes simply rolled over in the final quarter. But the offensive lulls are a definite trend in these bigger games that will need to be addressed, because this was a winnable game if Iowa played like it did in the first and fourth quarters for 40 minutes.
It’s a game to learn from, for sure, and a game that stings. But this team does have some resilience in them that is promising as they inch closer to matchups against some of the best teams in the country.
