Iowa women fall at home to Indiana for rare third straight loss
By Hawk Fanatic
IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa women’s basketball team showed some grit and kept fighting and scrapping until the very end against Indiana on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
But the Hawkeyes also shot just 33.9 percent from the field, including 6-of-19 from 3-point range, committed 14 turnovers and never led as Indiana hung on for a 74-67 victory.
Iowa has now lost three straight games for the first time since 2018 and falls to 2-4 in Big Ten play and 12-5 overall under first-year head coach Jan Jensen
Jensen shuffled her lineup throughout Sunday’s game, and she finally settled on playing three freshmen – center Ava Heiden and guards Taylor Stremlow and Aaliyah Guyton down the stretch – along with junior reserve guard Taylor McCabe.
McCabe was fouled while attempting a 3-point shot with 49.3 seconds left to play. She then made all three free throws, cutting the deficit to 70-65, and giving her team at least a chance.
Iowa ran a play following a timeout, but it resulted in Guyton shooting an air ball from 3-point range late in the shot clock.
Indiana then made two free throws, but Guyton answered with a layup, cutting the deficit to 72-67 with 24 seconds remaining.
The Hoosiers would go on to make a layup in the closing seconds to secure the win.

McCabe and senior center Addi O’Grady were the only Iowa players to score in double figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
O’Grady spent much of the fourth quarter on the bench, however, as Jensen chose to go with Heiden, who finished with eight points and five rebounds.
Graduate guard Lucy Olsen, who has led Iowa in scoring throughout the season, was held to just eight points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field in Sunday’s loss.
Olsen only played 23 minutes and spent much of the fourth quarter on the bench with O’Grady and fellow starters Syd Affolter and Kylie Feuerbach.
Iowa’s five starters only combined for 28 points, including just five from junior forward Hannah Stuelke, while Affolter scored four points and Feuerbach didn’t score.
“I thought we gave better effort than what we did at Illinois,” Jensen said of Iowa’s 63-57 loss at Illinois this past Thursday. “At Illinois we just were a little flat. I think what we saw (today) was we just didn’t have a go-to offensive person other than McCabe. I was so happy for McCabe. She played a great game, and she played a great game defensively.
“But Hannah had a tougher night. Lucy had a tougher night. We just couldn’t quite get anything rolling on that offensive side.”
One of the bright spots for Iowa besides McCabe was freshman guard Taylor Stremlow, who played 26 minutes off the bench and stuffed the stat sheet with eight rebounds, seven points, four assists and two steals.
Stremlow was asked on the Learfield post-game radio show about staying positive despite the three-game losing streak.
Iowa, which is coming off back-to-back NCAA runner-up finishes, hasn’t been in this position much recently.
“We’ve got to stay together,” Stremlow said. “We’ve got to get in the gym and keep working on, not just ourselves, but working to get each other open and just have more of that team chemistry and put a good forty minutes together. I think that’s what we’ve been struggling to do.
“But we’re optimistic. Obviously, we’re a pretty young team and we’re still learning. But we’ve got to do this together and get it done and we will.”
Jensen also expressed optimism while addressing the media after Sunday’s loss.
“I kind of look at it as we’re a lot closer than we are farther away,” she said.
Jensen faced a daunting task this season as Iowa is adjusting to being without legendary head coach Lisa Bluder, who retired this past May, and without four key players from last season, including the greatest offensive player in the history of women’s college basketball in point guard Caitlin Clark.
Jensen think her veteran players are pressing.
“I think individually they want to do so well,” Jensen said. “And when you want to do so well, and you’re pushing to do so well, it ends up being tighter.”