Hawkeyes grind out a win over Rhode Island with Lucy Olsen sidelined

The Iowa women’s basketball team was served their first dose of adversity on Thanksgiving, and on a day filled with oversized portions, their helping of adversity was a large one. On the pregame radio broadcast, head coach Jan Jensen broke news that point guard Lucy Olsen was ‘game-to-game’ after suffering a gash on her knee during practice that needed stiches.

“Unique situation. Sometimes surprising, unfortunate and unlucky situations happen,” said Jensen. “We were just getting ready to practice and she kind of tripped, came off the floor, hit a ledge and had a pretty significant gash in her knee…nothing season altering, but just a pretty tough cut.”

It wasn’t pretty, and it was much closer than the 28.5-point spread, but the Hawkeyes battled adversity and came up with a gritty 69-62 win over Rhode Island.

Iowa battled in the paint to pull off their seventh-straight win‼️

The Hawkeyes defeated Rhode Island 69-62 at the #CancunChallenge.@CancunChallenge | @triplecrownspts | @IowaWBB pic.twitter.com/x7r80Z9SdV

— FloCollege | Basketball (@FloCollegeHoops) November 29, 2024

“I talked to them in the locker room before the game, I told them, it’s going to be all about being relentless,” said Jan Jensen. “We have not faced any pressure this whole year…I think of what we did was rushing and we just weren’t getting to our correct spots. It’s hard to simulate pressure by your male practice squad, you just can’t get the nervousness, the tension with it. Getting a win, I think that’s really going to help us long term.”

Kylie Feuerbach had the hot hand in the first quarter knocking down a pair of three-pointers, helping Iowa out to a 19-10 lead. The Rams answered in the final minute, including a three from Anaelle Dutat, cutting the lead to 19-15 after ten minutes.

The second quarter was a grind, with both sides struggling to find any rhythm. Iowa was just 3/15 from the floor with six turnovers, while UIR was 3/11, with four turnovers. The Rams closed the half on an 11’2 run and took a surprising 26-25 lead into the locker room. Iowa struggled to get the ball inside, with Addi O’Grady and Ava Heiden attempting just two shots over nearly 17 floor minutes.

“I really challenged our posts at halftime, because the (URI) post players were just really jamming us in the back and we were getting out maneuvered,” said Jensen. “We want to post up at the lane line, and when they were shoving us off the block, it’s not a foul. We could never get a post entry pass because we’re four feet away from the guards.”

“I said, guys, you’ve got to act a little bit more kick butt down there. We need you to touch the ball because you’re our highest percentage producers.”

After a slog in the second quarter, the offense opened up for both sides out of the locker room. Rhode Island center Harsimran Kaur was the one that kept the Rams in position for a potential upset, while the Hawkeyes got some three-point shooting of their own.

Addi O’Grady got three straight baskets to open the half, but a pair of threes from Kaur gave URI a 34-33 lead. That’s when the Hawkeyes three-point shooting arrived. Playing in her second career games, freshman point guard Aaliyah Guyton hit back-to-back threes to give Iowa a 40-37 lead. She finished with seven points and two assists.

“The kid is fearless, and that’s why we recruited her,” said assistant coach Raina Harmon on Guyton. “Defensively, she looked to get after it a bit, didn’t really get beat and then offensively, they weren’t guarding her off the top of the key and, for me, I think that was really the momentum swing.”

Not long after Guyton, Taylor McCabe stepped up threes on back-to-back possessions. All of the sudden, the Hawkeyes led 48-43, appearing to take hold of the momentum, but Harsimran Kaur was not finished. She hit two more three-pointers, and the Rams retook a 49-48 lead. The game went into the fourth quarter knotted up at 49 points apiece.

That’s when the wheels on the Hawkeye offense started turning. They worked the ball into the paint, and the answers that URI had in the first half were gone. An 8-0 run from Iowa, including three baskets from Addi O’Grady pushed the lead to 57-49, forcing a Rhode Island timeout.

“We work a lot in practice on the guards giving us different types of passes, depending on what the defense is playing, so when we get into the game, it flows easily,” said Addi O’Grady. “We didn’t get it into the post as much as we should have, but in the second half, that was our emphasis, so we did a good job with that.”

Ava Heiden added a basket to extend it to a 12-0 Iowa run and the Hawkeyes were able to close out a 69-62 victory.

Addi O’Grady finished with a team-high 18 points on 8/9 shooting, while Hannah Stuelke added 13 points and four rebounds. Kylie Feuerbach was big in the first half, finishing with 12 points and three rebounds.

For the night, Iowa shot 25 of 48 (52.1%) from the floor and 6 of 17 (35.3%) from three-point range. The glaring stat was 22 turnovers, which Raina Harmon spoke about after the game.

“That’s the first team that pressed us like that, so it’s hard to get our gray squad guys to simulate what it’s going to be like from a team that’s been running it for years…the second thing was having people playing out of position tonight, really kind of a mess, not having people in the right places the first half. I think getting that shored up in the second half did us wonders.”

Up Next: The Hawkeyes finish their trip to the Cancun Challenge with a matchup against the BYU Cougars on Friday night. Tipoff is set for 8:00pm CT on FloHoops.