The adage says that basketball is a game of runs, and the Iowa Women’s Basketball team proved why in Bloomington Sunday evening. Down 16 coming out of halftime, the Hawkeyes used a 17-0 run in the 3rd quarter to storm back to steal a 56-53 victory against the Indiana Hoosiers (11-7, 0-6 B1G). It’s the team’s largest comeback win since 2022, and puts their record on the season at 14-2, and 5-0 in conference play.
One of Iowa’s worst halves of play of the season was followed by another strong performance, led by Ava Heiden who stuffed the stat sheet with 13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 assists, and a steal. Hannah Stuelke scored all of her points in the second half, tallying 12 points and 12 rebounds, with Chit-Chat Wright also hitting 13 points and grabbing 4 of Iowa’s 9 steals. For Indiana, Shay Ciezki torched Iowa in the first half, hitting 19 points in the first half, but finishing with only 21 on the night.
The reason? The return of super senior Kylie Feuerbach after missing 3 games with an ankle injury, who guarded Ciezki for the entirety of the second half. Feuerbach was huge in the second half defensively, and added in 5 points off the bench as well.
It’s the second game in a row that Iowa has struggled against one of the worst teams in the conference, and yet, still got the win. Forced to try and comeback from a steep halftime deficit, we also saw head coach Jan Jensen shorten the rotation, only having its starting lineup of Wright, Taylor Stremlow, Taylor McCabe, Stuelke and Heiden, plus Feuerbach off the bench, in the second half, and the experience on the floor made a difference.
Let’s see how we got there…
The game began with the Hoosiers jumping out to a 10-2 lead Iowa was able to keep it somewhat close due to Indiana’s Maya Makalusky was called for 3 fouls in the first quarter alone. But Iowa struggled to get back into it thanks to the turnover bug showing its head again. The Hawkeyes started 1/10 from the field in the first 7 minutes of play.
Down 12-2, Iowa did at least find itself in the bonus with 3:03 left in the first quarter. It took until the Hoosiers took a 16-4 lead with 1:36 left in the first quarter for Jensen to call a timeout as her squad continued to make it impossible to find the basket. Iowa went 7:42 seconds between a field goal made by Journey Houston tout the lead to 10, but ended the quarter down 20-8.
The second quarter started out on a better note for Iowa as Heiden immediately found the basket after not entering the scoring column at all in the first. The Hawkeyes ripped off a run, cutting the lead to 22-17 with 5:16 left to play in the half. But the Hoosiers quickly were able to get the lead back up to double digits as Iowa continued struggling offensively as the offense continued to struggle. Good looks didn’t fall, there were once again too many turnovers, and it resulted in the lowest scoring half of the year, shooting 24% from the floor and entering the half down 35-19.
Things changed quickly in the third.
Jensen brought in Feuerbach right away, and her return to extended minutes made an immediate impact on what Iowa could do defensively. Stuelke finally made her first basket of the night and then after another stop on the other end of the court, Iowa’s 9-0 run to cut the lead to 7. The run quickly extended to 12 as Heiden hustled for an offensive rebound that she kicked to Stuelke, who found McCabe deep beyond the arc, who splashed another 3 to cut the lead to 4 with 3:30 to play in the quarter.
Iowa’s 9th steal of the night then led to Feuerbach’s first 3 after her 3-game absence, cutting the deficit to 1, before the Hawkeyes took their first lead of the game with just over 1:30 to play in the 3rd quarter off a Stuelke me-bound layup. The Hoosiers ended the quarter up 1, but the momentum had fully shifted back to Iowa.
A beautiful crossover jumper from Wright, immediately followed by a steal and assist to a speedy Stuelke for a play reminiscent of the lethal Caitlin Clark/Stuelke combo opened the 4th quarter for the Hawkeyes before both teams found themselves in a back-and-forth duel.
Iowa led 48-47 with 3:30 to play as neither team seemed to take a commanding lead. A brutal foul called on Wright that gave Indiana a 2-point lead seemed like it might bring the Hoosiers back into the game, but Wright responded by sinking a highly contested 3 pointer on the other end of the floor that put Iowa right back on top.
A beautiful high-low combo from Heiden to Stuelke expanded Iowa’s lead to 3 as the clock ticked under a minute to play. Indiana’s response after the timeout? Getting called for a 5-second call on the inbound play. The Hoosiers started fouling from there. The Hoosiers then made another mistake and fouled when it was clear they were told not to, sending Stremlow to the line where she went 1-1, giving Iowa a two-possession lead.
Indiana didn’t need a 3 but Ciezki took one early in the shot clock anyway and had it emphatically blocked by Feuerbach. And yet, the Hoosiers still had a chance after Stuelke missed both of her free throws on the other end of the court. Indiana got the ball inbounds on their next play but Ciezki couldn’t hit from deep, with Heiden grabbing the rebound to seal the deal for Iowa’s win.
It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done, and again, sometimes that’s all that matters. The team now has most of the week to prep for a home game against Oregon before it will face a brutal stretch of ranked Big Ten teams to end the month. There are definitely things to figure out, but figuring them out while still atop the Big Ten certainly beats the other option, especially when Iowa was a victim to some close losses last season.
