IOWA CITY:
The Iowa Hawkeye women returned to Carver for their regular season closer against Wisconsin. The Hawks come in heavily favored for this Senior Day matchup. Former head coach Lisa Bluder, Caitlin Clark’s parents, and several other noteworthy attendees were in the arena along with 15,000 fans to support graduating seniors Olsen, McCabe, O’Grady, Feuerbach, Ediger and Affolter.
The Hawks led the Badgers until their was just over one minute left in the first quarter. The Hawks came out hot with accuracy double that of the Wisconsin but by the end of the quarter that percentage had fallen below. The Hawks were draining threes and twos early but went cold later in the quarter. Olsen led scoring for Iowa with 9 but Wisconsin was able to take the lead with a late and one play putting the score 20-21 Wisconsin at the end of the first ten.
The second quarter started slow and uneventful for the Hawks. In the first 5 minutes, Iowa’s Stuelke was the only player from either team to put points of the board with 7 of her own putting Iowa back in the lead in the process. The Badgers put their first bucket in shortly thereafter with a 3 pointer by Krahn which seemed to open up some offensive movement for both teams. Affolter had a bucket for two and Guyton nailed a long three. Feurbach was sent to the line while Hawks were in the bonus putting in a pair. The Hawks outscored the badgers 16-15 for the quarter. Wisconsin drained a 3 pointer at the buzzer putting the score tied at 36-36 for the half.
The Iowa seniors showed they weren’t gonna let the game slip away with Affolter, Feuerbach, and Olsen all hitting three point shots for a 9 point Iowa run putting the Hawks up 45-36 early in the third. Wisconsin traded baskets the rest of the quarter but the Hawkeyes held the lead 62-53 after 30 minutes of play. The third quarter showed the Hawks playing a variety of combinations leading to a staggering 8 players contributing to 26 Iowa points in the third quarter.
A slow start to the fourth quarter with Olsen putting up the Hawks first 6 points and extending the Iowa lead to 11. Stuelke put in a bucket after several rebounds and Olsen continued to somehow get into the paint for layups this game. Affolter contributed with a three after a dish her way and a long look. With just under two minutes left, Coach Jensen put in all five seniors for Iowa for some final play together before subbing out each senior allowing fans to give them individual applause for their contributions to the program as the join their team on the sideline. During all this the Hawks continued to slowly pull away from Wisconsin winning 81-66.
The Hawkeyes will be the 11 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will play Wisconsin again Wednesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
