Sophomore Ava Heiden led all scorers with 21 points and 13 rebounds, Taylor Stremlow’s 19 points and 8 assists was a new career high in points for the second consecutive game as the Iowa Hawkeyes rolled to an 83-74 road victory Thursday night against. The win gives Iowa a 21-5 (12-3 B1G) record on the season, third in the conference, while Purdue now sits at 12-14 (4-11 B1G) and is fighting for the last spot in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament.
While the final score might say otherwise, Iowa was never
really in any danger against the Boilermakers. With senior Hannah Stuelke missing the game with an upper body injury, freshman Journey Houston stepped into the starting lineup. Combined with senior Taylor McCabe’s season-ending injury, Jan Jensen had to rely on her youngest players for extended minutes throughout the game.
While the result were mixed, Iowa did manage to get the job done regardless. Houston tallied a fantastic 16 points and 5 rebounds in her first career start in the black and gold, while Kylie Feuerbach added 10 points for good measure. Sophomore guard Chit-Chat Wright had an off night, only scoring 6 points on 1-7 shots from the field and 1-5 from deep, but it was a night where the team could thankfully afford it.
The Boilermakers got the first basket, but the Hawkeyes took advantage of 2 quick turnovers to jump out to a 10-4 lead.
Iowa would never trail again.
Stremlow showed early why she had earned her spot in the starting lineup in Taylor McCabe’s absence, once again looking like a different player on the offensive end of the floor. The sophomore scored 10 points, including going 2-2 from deep, in the first quarter, with 7 of those coming within the first 5 minutes. Stremlow’s confidence in her shot looks completely different than it did early in the season, and it’s making a huge difference for Iowa. Between her and Heiden early, it seemed Iowa could do pretty much whatever they wanted, particularly in the post.
The Boilermakers, to their credit, did their best to keep things close, cutting the Iowa lead down to 5 with 3:45 to play in the half, but the Hawkeyes responded with a 10-0 run to close out the first quarter up 29-14 at the hands of Heiden and Stremlow. Purdue just couldn’t get out of their own way. Between multiple turnovers that led to fast break points for Iowa and foul trouble in the post, it was too easy for Iowa.
Iowa continued to roll in the second quarter, and essentially put the game out of reach for the Boilermakers with 8:18 to play in the half after a Feuerbach (or ‘Fishbach’ if you’re the B1G+ announcer) 3 pointer gave Iowa a 21 point 35-14 lead. Purdue went over six minutes of game time without scoring a point, and over seven minutes without a field goal.
Meanwhile, Stremlow continued her absolute heater of a night. Just under the 5 minute mark in the second quarter, she made her 5th shot from deep on the night, putting her at 19 points…the same amount Purdue had scored in the entire game to that point.
Iowa looked great to start the second half as Heiden got off to a quick 6 point scoring spurt, but as Jensen continued to try and gain experience for her young players, the Boilermakers were able to were able to cut into Iowa’s lead, cutting it from 20 down to 11 as Iowa went on a 4 minute scoring drought.
In the end, Purdue’s flirtation with a comeback never really got any legs.
Even as Purdue tried to claw back, it still gave Jensen an opportunity to mess around with lineups and minutes. Teagan Mallegni saw her first extended minutes of the season, and Layla Hays also played her first extended minutes in conference play. It wasn’t always pretty, and going sub-heavy for most of the second half was definitely part of the Boilermaker’s coming back, but Iowa responded every team.
Houston was huge down the stretch, and Deal also got involved in scoring late as well, which hopefully bodes well for Sunday against Michigan. This was a good reminder that the young players on this team, especially on the bench, are still somewhat rough around the edges, but this kind of game experience is invaluable even if they didn’t light up the stat sheet.
Big game Sunday. Let’s hope this was a good tune-up for it. GO HAWKS!
