Freshman forward Hannah Stuelke electrified the crowd and played the best basketball of her career Wednesday in a 93-64 Iowa rout.

Stuelke came into the game in the second quarter and lit up the Wildcats. She completed a 3-point play to start. Next possession Caitlin Clark missed a three, but Stuelke rebounded. Clark missed another three and this time Stuelke stuck the rebound back into the basket.

A couple possessions later Stuelke was stymied inside but found Gabbie Marshall at the arc, and Marshall buried the three.  Then Kate Martin missed a three, Stuelke rebounded and later in the possession she scored inside.

Next the 6-foot-2 forward led a fastbreak, and Clark hit her in stride for another layup that about brought the house down. Stuelke sat for a while, but upon her return she stole a Northwestern inbounds pass and took it all the way for another fastbreak layup.

“I knew they were going to throw it there because everyone else was covered,” she said. “Everyone wanted me to dunk it, but I’ll save that for later.”

She finished the quarter by taking a charge.

“I just had to come in and be the spark,” Stuelke said. “Sometimes we need it. Today we got off to a little slow start, but once we got rolling we were perfect.”

In the first half she had 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting, five rebounds (three offensive), made her one foul shot, and it all came in 6 minutes, 28 seconds of play.

It could have been more. She spent minutes waiting to come into the game in the first quarter, but there was never a stoppage of play. Monika Czinano shot two free throws early in the quarter but other than that play went on until the quarter ended. No media timeout, no other free throws, nothing.

“It was (like forever). I was sitting there a long time, but the view from there is so good,” Stuelke deadpanned.

Stuelke finished the game with a career-high 17 points, nine rebounds and two assists. She made 8-of-11 shots. She played just 14-1/2 minutes.

“At the start of the year we had her pegged at the power forward position,” coach Lisa Bluder said. “And then we started to explore the opportunity to play her at the four and the five. That’s where she is now. She’s our first sub at both the four and the five. She’s explosive; she’s an unbelievable rebounder, driver, and we need to use her.”

“It’s been tremendous to see her growth, especially when she comes into a game and impacts it like that,” Clark said of Stuelke. “I think she’s really starting to see her potential and see where she can go.”

Clark was dynamic as always, barely missing a triple double with 20 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds. She didn’t shoot much in the second half and was content to add eight assists.

“We wanted to get them out of their zone defense and into a man, and that’s exactly what happened,” Clark said. “We’re at our best when we have four people in double figures. I just thought it was a very good game for us. It felt like Iowa basketball. Our fans had a lot to cheer about and that’s what we want to do every single night.”

Defensive stops led to multiple transition baskets. Iowa had 20 points off fastbreaks.

Clark also moved into second on the all-time scoring list at Iowa (2,117 points) surpassing Ally Disterhoft.

Czinano, with 18 points and six rebounds, had to work hard inside against 6-3 Caileigh Walsh and friends. The Wildcats doubled down and weren’t afraid to mix it up inside. With the exception of Walsh, they are somewhat undersized, but the Wildcats had three blocks inside and forced 14 turnovers.

Like Clark, Czinano moved up one in the career scoring list, passing Cindy Haugejorde with a total of 2,062. Iowa’s other double-figure scorer was McKenna Warnock with 10.

Iowa blew it open in the second quarter during Stuelke time, and the third period (10-14 FG) was more of the same. Bluder substituted liberally and every player saw the floor with 12 of the 14 scoring.

Iowa held Northwestern to 36.4 percent shooting while shooting 59.3 percent itself. The Hawkeyes also had a good night from the arc, making 8-of-19 (.421).

Iowa improved to 13-4, 5-1 and plays host to Penn State (11-6, 2-4) Saturday at 11:30 a.m.

Northwestern is 6-10, 0-6.