By Dallas Jones

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The only thing that makes a five game winning streak better is winning the sixth game. Iowa had the opportunity to make that a reality Thursday night as the 17-7 (7-6) Hawkeyes hosted the 10-14 (2-11) Rutgers Scarlet Knights.

After 11 days away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the Iowa Hawkeyes returned to their home crowd and while they didn’t have their best foot forward, but any conference win is a good win in February. The Hawkeyes started slow, but another big night from Lucy Olsen helped them take down Rutgers 55-43, here is how it happened.

First Quarter: The Hawkeyes had a little rust to shake off after a long break from Iowa City. Iowa started the game just one for seven from the field and saw themselves trailing 10-2 at the 5:28 mark in the quarter.

Lucy Olsen continued to her recent high level of play tonight as she scored eight of Iowa’s ten first quarter points. All other Hawkeyes were a combined 0-9 in the quarter with four turnovers. While they had what looked like the worst opening quarter of the season on offense, they still only trailed by four points after one.

Second Quarter: Olsen continued to light it up in the second quarter as she scored back to back buckets in the opening quarter of the second quarter, cutting the lead down to two. Soon after, Olsen knocked down a three to give Iowa its first lead of the game 20-19, Olsen’s 16th point at the time.

The Hawkeyes would carry that momentum with them throughout the quarter, going on a 13-1 run over a six minute stretch. Their largest lead of the game was eight, 28-20. They would stumble into the locker room as they failed to score in the last 3:08 to close the half.

Third Quarter: Scoring was a scarcity for everyone not named Lucy Olsen in the first half and that continued in the second. Sydney Affolter changed that when she hit a pair of threes early in the second half, the second of which put her into double digits and gave Iowa a 40-31 lead with 3:55 left in the quarter.

Syd Affolter also grabbed ten rebounds in the through the first three quarters, giving her a double double. Olsen still ran the show as the quarter closed, her 25th point of the night would send the Hawkeyes to the break with a 46-37 lead.

Fourth Quarter: We were scoreless through three minutes of the closing quarter before a Kylie Feuerbach three gave Iowa its biggest lead of the night at 12.

The lead grew to 16 as Rutgers failed to score in the fourth quarter until 48 seconds remained. With over a minute left in the game, there had been seven points scored from both teams in the quarter. After a few late buckets, Iowa came away with a 55-43 victory.