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Hawkeyes silence Washington, end losing slide

On3 imageby: Kyle Huesmann02/12/26HuesmannKyle

It wasn’t quite a must-win situation, but the Hawkeyes really needed one. In the midst of a three-game losing streak, there was no panic inside the locker room, but a sense of urgency to get back on track before things got out of hand. An important win to restore order and regain confidence, Iowa held 25th-ranked Washington to their second-lowest scoring output of the season, grabbing 65-56 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night. With the win, the Hawkeyes move to 19-5 overall and 10-3 in Big Ten play.

“I just think they needed it for their psyches. They needed to feel that (winning feel) again. It’s been tough (lately),” said head coach Jan Jensen. “Getting one after we’ve lost a few and then getting it when you’ve reformed (with Taylor McCabe out), I think it was really big…I think it was big for the confidence level (of the team).”

“I thought it was a really important game for us to come out and win to get our confidence back and realize what we can do,” said Hannah Stuelke who finished the night with a double-double, including a season-high 16 boards. “It felt like tonight we were having a lot of fun, no matter what the score was.”

The results in the opening quarter did not point in a direction of an incoming victory for the Hawkeyes. After a choppy start that included a combined six turnovers in the first 106 seconds of the game, Washington settled in offensively. They scored on 11 of their final 15 possessions in the first quarter, including eight points from Elle Ladine to take a 25-19 lead.

“The transition defense got away from us again in that first quarter and they’re really explosive when they get out in transition,” said Jensen. “They can hit those threes, and it can be trouble.”

More than just a sore spot during their three-game losing streak, the Hawkeyes couldn’t afford to let the Huskies keep scoring at that clip. So, they didn’t allow them to. Chit-Chat Wright knocked down her third triple of the night to open the second quarter, and she poured in six points during an extended 11-0 run that saw Iowa take a 30-25 lead.

Defensively, the intensity and urgency switched, with the Hawkeye defense forcing to Washington into ten straight empty possessions, including six turnovers. Finally, Avery Howell stopped the bleeding with a bucket, but Iowa outscored the Huskies 17-5 in the quarter and took a 36-30 lead into the break.

“That second quarter, we held them to five points, which was great. I’d like to think a good percentage of that was us, but it was probably a little bit of them too,” said Jensen with a laugh. “But I thought that was really the key. It got us settled.”

Washington threw the first punch out of halftime, with a quick 5-0 spurt, including a Hannah Stines three to pull within 36-35. However, that was the closest they’d get. The Hawkeyes scored just 13 points in the quarter, but Ava Heiden had six points, while Chit-Chat Wright buried her fourth three-pointer to keep the lead intact going into the final quarter. Wright finished with a game-high 21 points on the heels of a 20-point, 12-assist night against Minnesota last time out. Her confidence and comfortability as a high-level scorer continues to grow with each shot she takes.

“My team really believes in me, and they want me to take shots and they really emphasize that, even in practice,” said Wright. “They say, Chat, we want you take those shots. We know you work on that every day, so when you’re in the game, take those shots. It’s best for our team. So, that’s what I do.”

In total, Iowa ended up putting up just 29 points in the second half, but their defense did the job it needed to do. Over the span of 7:12 in the final quarter, the Hawkeyes scored just three points. They hung on to their lead, holding Washington without a point on eight of nine possessions until an Elle Ladine three cut it to 58-54 with 90 seconds to play.

“We’ve really been challenging them with the intensity, transitional defense (in practice) and then I wanted to really shore up our ball screen defense,” said Jensen. “When we settled a little bit, (our defense) started to kind of look a little bit more of that gritty, collar mentality…I thought the key to winning this game was going to have to be our defense and that certainly was the case.”

In the closing seconds, it was Kylie Feuerbach that delivered the dagger. With the shot clock winding down, Ava Heiden kicked a pass out to Feuerbach and she knocked down a three to give Iowa their largest lead, 65-56, with just 23.8 to play. Kylie’s defense on Sayvia Sellers was quintessential in the win, but that shot was one that she needed for her confidence.

“It’s so easy to criticize, they’re not this, they’re not that, why are they playing. I’m telling you, these kids work. My kids are relentless workers and those are just fun moments,” said Jensen. “I was so happy for her because she wants it so much. That shot, her smile coming to the timeout was priceless. I think it was big for her confidence and I’m certainly going to draw upon it to remind her.”

After giving up 25 points in the first quarter, the Hawkeyes held Washington to 31 points on 13-of-37 (35.1%) shooting over the final 30 minutes. They held the Huskies big three shooters to just 3-of-17 (17.6%) from behind the arc, just days after they hit 12 threes against Wisconsin. Coach Jan Jensen says that the six-day break allowed them to get back to the basic fundamentals of defense, which may have been a factor in the improved defensive effort.

“We had to sit on the loss, so Friday, I just went back to close out drills. I didn’t have an opponent (to prepare for). It was just close out drills. We ran, we did help defense and just went back to basic things that a lot of times when you get into the throws of a season, you can never really work on.”

“Tomorrow I’ve got to worry about Britt Prince, but for that time, we had a pretty intense practice…I made it a point to go back to basics, do some old-fashioned drills and just try to remind them of what’s needed and I think that was probably helpful.”

On the night, the Hawkeyes were 25-of-54 (46.3%) from the floor, 6-of-12 (50.0%) from three-point range and 9-of-14 (64.3%) from the free throw line. Outside of the game-high 21 points from Chit-Chat, Hannah Stuelke finished with a double-double 14 points and 16 rebounds, while Ava Heiden tacked on 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. Although 65 points doesn’t seem like an offensive outburst, they averaged a solid 1.05 points per possession. The turnover battle was the key team stat of the night, with Washington giving it away 19 times to just nine turnovers for Iowa.

UP NEXT: The Hawkeyes will go on the road for a President’s Day matchup against the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln on Monday. Tipoff is set for 11:00am CT on FOX.

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