By Hawk Fanatic

Drake University did all it could to create a home-court advantage against the Iowa women’s basketball team on Sunday at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

The arena was packed with fans and emotions ran high as Drake chose this annual showdown to honor the 50-year anniversary of its women’s basketball program.

But still it wasn’t enough as Iowa, led by first-year head coach and former Drake star Jan Jensen, continued its dominance in the series with an 86-73 victory.

Senior center Addi O’Grady led four Iowa players in double figures with a career-high 27 points. The Colorado native also led Iowa with 10 rebounds.

Iowa improved to 4-0 and has now won 20 of the last 21 games against Drake, which fell to 2-2.

The 6-foot-4 O’Grady was mostly a role player off the bench in her first three seasons in the program.

But with Iowa losing four of its top players from last season, there were opportunities for playing time, and so far, O’Grady has risen to the challenge.

She also scored 18 points in a win over Virginia Tech last week and made all nine of her field-goal attempts.

O’Grady made 13-of-21 field-goal attempts in Sunday’s win, and she was largely responsible for Iowa having a 46-10 advantage in points in the paint.

In fact, O’Grady played so well that Jensen had some Monika Czinano moments in reference to Iowa’s former All-Big Ten center.

“I’m so happy to see that,” Jensen said on Learfield post-game radio show. “She has worked so hard to get to this point, and she followed up that Virginia Tech game, and you’re kind of like, okay, is this who she is? And I thought she was tremendous tonight. Sometimes, I can tell my expectations get higher and higher and there were couple times I could feel I was having Monika Czinano expectations, and that’s a good thing.

“So, I’m thrilled for her. We knew we had the advantage inside. I wasn’t so sure how she was going to feel about that because she’s never had that on her shoulders. And she answered beautifully.”

Iowa shot 52 percent (34-of-65) from the field, while Drake was ice cold from the field, making just 18-of-63 shots overall.

Iowa had to overcome foul problems in the fourth quarter as starters Kylie Feuerbach, Lucy Olsen and Hannah Stuelke all had four fouls, as did key freshman reserve Teagan Mallegni. They all spent parts of the fourth quarter on the bench, leaving O’Grady and senior guard Syd Affolter as the only starters on the court at times.

Iowa had five players that finished the game with four fouls, but nobody fouled out.

Olsen, a graduate transfer from Villanova, finished with 18 points and six assists, while Stuelke scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Mallegni also came off the bench to score 13 points.

Senior point guard Katie Dinnebier led Drake with 40 points, and she made 17-of-20 free throw attempts.

Jensen, meanwhile, was a star for Drake in the early 1990s, and she played her senior season under Lisa Bluder.

They would both go on to coach together, first at Drake, and then for nearly a quarter century at Iowa where Jensen served as Bluder’s top assistant before being promoted to head coach this past May, and on the same day Bluder announced retirement.

Bluder retired after having led Iowa to an NCAA runner-up finish in each of the past two seasons.

Those teams were led by two-time National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark, who now plays in the WNBA for the Indiana Fever and was named Rookie of the Year and first-team All-WNBA.

Clark, who is from West Des Moines, attended Sunday’s game, as did Bluder.

“I’m just so grateful,” Jensen said. “How blessed am I to have had a part in two really great programs.”

But once Sunday’s game started, Jensen was all about winning.

“I so wanted it for the team because those guys, they’re busting their tails and they’re trying to do it the right way” Jensen said of her players. “They’re such great celebraters of each other. I just really love their symmetry. So, I was so happy.”

Drake led 25-21 after the first quarter as Iowa only had three players score in the quarter, led by O’Grady’s 14 points on 7-of-7 shooting from the field.

Iowa then closed the second quarter on a 10-0 scoring run and led 45-35 at halftime.

Olsen scored eight of her 12 first-half points in the second quarter, while Mallegni also scored eight points in the second quarter.

Iowa outscored the Bulldogs 24-10 in the second quarter.

Drake only shot 31 percent from the field (9-of-29) in the first half and committed 10 turnovers.

O’Grady finished the first half with 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field and with six rebounds.

She had sent a clear message that the paint belonged to her, and that would hold true in the second half as Drake made a couple mini runs, but never seriously threatened.

“Addi had a great game. I’m so proud of her,” Stuelke said. “I think her confidence is just building and building, and I think that’s key part for Addi.

“And nobody could stop her today. So, we just kept feeding her the ball and she kept making it.”