Ref show + way too many turnovers = very bad basketball
Iowa Women’s Basketball followed one of its best game of the season against Nebraska with one of its worst performances of the season on the road against Northwestern, escaping from Evanston with a win against the Wildcats who came into the game with an 8-game losing streak, 67-58. The win puts Iowa at 13-2 (4-0 B1G) on the season.
Iowa struggled mightily in many aspects of the game, with only Ava Heiden and Chit-Chat Wright scoring in double figures, with 20 and 12 apiece. But that wasn’t the story of the game, it was once again foul trouble, and turnovers. The Hawkeyes turned the ball over 20 times, resulting in 20 points off turnovers from Northwestern. Hannah Stuelke struggled mightily, scoring 8 points on 2-11 shooting. It seemed like the senior couldn’t buy a bucket despite getting her regular looks at the basket. Despite those struggles, the only reason Northwestern was able to stay in the game was senior forward Grace Sullivan, who scored 28 points on 11-22 shooting.
The officiating was consistently awful on both ends of the floor, with Heiden and Layla Hays getting called for 3 fouls by extremely early in the third quarter, forcing Jan Jensen to play small. On a night where Heiden was single-handedly dominating the Wildcats, it was especially frustrating to see her sit on the bench for large chunks of the game. Iowa struggled a bit at the charity stripe as well, but did at least make them when it counted, but still finished 20-29 on the day for 69% shooting (not nice in this instance).
The game got started with Wright finding Heiden for an easy assisted layup, before the Hawkeyes were able to get a quick steal that allowed Wright to find Heiden again. A quick turnover from the Wildcats then allowed Iowa to find Heiden…again for the 6-0 run, before the Hawkeyes went on a more than 2-minute scoring drive that let the Wildcats tie the game at 6 thanks to Grace Sullivan and way too many Hawkeye turnovers.
The Wildcats actually took an extremely brief 8-6 lead after that, before Heiden returned to the floor to continue her personal 8-0 scoring run. Heiden continued her solo scoring run, getting Iowa out to a 12-8 lead as the rest of the team went 0-8, before getting called for her second foul with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.
The game was back-and-forth from there, with the Hawkeyes continuing to make silly mistakes that allowed turnovers to keep piling up. Meanwhile, the Wildcats and Sullivan started to get hot, and tied the game at 17 apiece. With Heiden and Hays both on the bench with two fouls, Jensen went small, putting Stuelke at the 5, but Iowa couldn’t make shots, allowing Northwestern to go on a 7-0 run for a 21-17 lead.
With turnovers continuing to pile up, and no shots seeming to fall, things were starting to look bad for Iowa with Heiden on the bench. But the Hawkeyes managed to stay in the game, as McCabe was fouled while making Iowa’s first 3-pointer of the game. While she couldn’t convert the 4-point play, the Hawkeyes did manage to take advantage of a late shift in officiating to get into the bonus for a good chunk of the end of the half. Success at the stripe, a big basket from Taylor Stremlow, and Stuelke finally getting a layup to fall allowed Iowa to go into the half with a 3-point lead, up 32-29.
The third quarter got off to another rough start for the Hawkeyes, with Stalk getting called for a questionable second foul early, before Heiden got called for her third, and then Hays literally immediately getting called for her third after coming in from the bench. Hays was then called for her 4th foul with 4:06 left in the third quarter, forcing Jensen to bring Heiden back into the game.
while stremlow struggled with turnovers, when she started looking to score late in the first half and into the second, she succeeded, providing some crucial points for Iowa before the Heiden awoke once again on offense, ending the half on another solo 6-0 run to enter the 4th quarter up 50-44.
Iowa finally got things going in the 4th quarter, as a McCabe 3 with just under 8 minutes to play gave Iowa a 9-point lead, causing a loud ‘Let’s Go Hawks!’ chant to ring through Welsh-Ryan Arena. Both teams entered the bonus with 4 minutes left in the game.
From there, Iowa was thankfully able to keep its lead despite more turnovers. The Wildcats did manage to cut the lead down to 4 with just under a minute to play, but a pair of free throws from Chit Chat Wright plus one from Heiden got Iowa back to a more comfortable position to get the win.
It was not Iowa’s best game by any stretch of the imagination. But a win is a win, especially on a night where literally nothing went right. But still, there is a lot to work on for this team…let’s hope it gets worked out before the brutal gambit of ranked teams waiting at the end of January.
And yet, Iowa still goes home with a win, in first place in the Big Ten. There are certainly worse places to be. GO HAWKS!
Category: General Sports
