IOWA CITY
It was a cold night at Carver Hawkeye Arena and a cold start for the Hawkeye women as they faced off against Rutgers coming in as a 20+ point favorite. The Hawks are back home and coming in after a five game win streak after really showing improvement in their offense. Tonight’s weather kept several fans away as empty seats were visible in the arena for the first time for a women’s basketball game in recent memory.
The first quarter was slow for the Hawks as Rutgers ran a full court defensive press for the entirety of the quarter. Rutgers started off with a 5 point lead and continued to lead the entire quarter. Olsen continued her recent offensive breakout scoring 8 of the Hawks 10 points in the quarter while Affolter put in a pair of free throws. The score at the end of the first was 17-13 with Rutgers leading throughout.
The Hawkeyes got warmed up in the second quarter with Lucy Olsen again leading scoring and draining three point shots (4 for 4) in the first half of the game. The Hawks went on a 13-1 scoring run allowing the Hawks to not only take the lead but start pulling away. It seems both teams were frustrated with officiating but the Hawks began making some moves and ended the half with a 6 point lead (22-28 Iowa).
The Hawkeyes and Scarlet Knights traded buckets for much of the third quarter. The Hawks saw several people scoring this quarter. Rutgers’ Cornwell picked up her third and fourth fouls back to back followed by a technical while fighting down low with Iowa’s Stuelke. The rest of the quarter seemed a bit slow and sloppy on both ends of the court as scoring was low and turnovers plentiful. Iowa’s Sydney Affolter hit a notable pairs of tres putting six points on the board while Olsen put up another 6 of her own, Iowa held their lead ending the third quarter with 46 to Rutgers 37.
The final quarter of play again was weak in the scoring stats with only two buckets falling (Feuerbach 3 and Steulke 2) in the first 5 minutes. Rutgers was in a scoring drought for over nine of the ten minutes until the Hawks started playing their bench. Iowa won 55-43.
The Hawkeyes continue their winning streak and Lucy Olsen continues to dominate scoring for Iowa with 27 points tonight.
