By Susan Harman

A couple things made the difference in Iowa’s 87-65 victory over Wisconsin Sunday at the Kohl Center. The first was foul trouble for the Badgers’ best player, 6-4 post Serah Williams, that limited her to 17 minutes. The second was a blistering third quarter that put the game away.

 Williams was 5-for-5 in the first half but didn’t get to play a lot of minutes because she accumulated three personal fouls. The Hawkeyes took advantage by outscoring the Badgers by 10 once Williams was removed from the lineup. They led 43-33 at intermission.

Williams’ value to the Badgers is clear from her 15 points and eight rebounds in her limited minutes.

Wisconsin elected not to start Williams right away in the third period but brought her in with 6:22 left. Thirty-seven seconds later she had foul No. 4 drawn by Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke.

The Badgers had pulled within 49-41, but Iowa outsc+ored them 21-10 to finish the quarter with a 70-51 lead.

“I thought it was our defense,” Bluder said on the Hawkeye radio network. “Our offense was pretty consistent all the way through, but our defense in that second quarter just built that lead to a 10-point cushion going into halftime. And then we just kept up with that and had a nine-point advantage in the third quarter.”

The Badgers shot 38.5 percent in the second quarter and 40 percent in the third. In the two periods combined they made only 2-of-12 threes.

Caitlin Clark helped spearhead Iowa’s second- and third-quarter surges. Clark made 1-of-5 threes in the first half but was 3-of-3 in the second. Clark finished with 28 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Stuelke was a big factor, not only doing battle in the post with Williams, but in scoring 21 points and blocking three shots. She drew six fouls in her time on the court and most were against Williams. Bluder said Stuelke was no longer on a minutes restriction after her leg injury, and the sophomore played 26 minutes.

“Just getting back as healthy as I can be was really important after these past few weeks,” Stuelke told Hawkeye radio.

“We saw some huge minutes from Stuelke,” Bluder said. “She also got their star player, Serah Williams, in foul trouble and really made it impossible for her to get in her groove.”

Iowa’s other big contributor was junior guard Sydney Affolter. She had the highest plus/minus total on the team at 38. Think of that: the team wins by 22 and yet when Affolter is on the floor Iowa is 38 points better than Wisconsin. Stuelke was plus-22 and Gabbie Marshall plus-21.

“If you don’t love her hustle, if you don’t love the way she rebounds, the way she gets on the floor for loose balls, something’s wrong with you,” Bluder told the Big Ten Network. “That kid plays with great energy.”

 Affolter was everywhere, grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds, scoring seven points and handing out four assists.

“When you have a player like Syd it’s like, ‘Whenever my number is called I’m going to do what I do and that’s I board and I play hard,’” Associate head coach Jan Jensen told the Hawkeye network.

“Syd just brings that dawg mentality,” Clark told the Big Ten Network. “She works hard every single day no matter how many minutes she’s going to get. She impacts the game on both sides of the floor. She’s just a tenacious player that everybody wants on our team.”

Iowa shot .667 in the third quarter and 50 percent overall. The Hawkeyes shot 41 percent overall from 3-point range after shooting 21 percent in the first half.

Iowa outscored Wisconsin in the paint 46-36, and its bench outscored the Badgers 44-11.

Iowa extended its winning streak over Wisconsin to 28 games. The two teams play again on Jan. 16 at Carver-Hawkeye arena. Iowa is 10-1 overall, and Wisconsin is 5-4. It was the Big Ten opener for both teams played before the first Wisconsin sellout in 21 years.

The Hawkeyes settle in for finals this week and play Cleveland State at 6 p.m. next Saturday night at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.