By Hawk Fanatic

The Iowa women’s basketball team will try to do early on Monday what no team has done this season – beat Ohio State on its home floor.

Ohio State is 12-0 at home this season and will host Iowa on President’s Day in Columbus, Ohio with tip-off coming at 11 a.m. on FOX.

However, the eighth-ranked Buckeyes are just 4-3 over their last seven games, while Iowa has won six games in a row under first-year head coach Jan Jensen.

This will be the first of three straight games against teams currently above Iowa (18-7, 8-6 Big Ten) in the Big Ten standings

Iowa is coming off a less-than-inspiring 55-43 victory over Rutgers this past Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen nearly scored half of Iowa’s points as the 5-foot-10 guard finished with 27 points and made 4-of-5 shots from 3-point range.

Iowa fell behind Rutgers 10-2 and also trailed 14-10 after the first quarter. The offense, thanks largely to Olsen, finally started to click in the second quarter as she scored 19 points in the first half, which ended with Iowa leading 28-22 at halftime.

“I thought we started out a little slow. I don’t know what it was,” Olsen said. “But we definitely can’t do that anymore But we kept fighting and found a way to win. That’s the most important thing.

“Coach (Jensen) mentioned that earlier in the season we probably would have lost that game.”

Over the last six games, Olsen is averaging 22.8 points, 5.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.

Iowa is also 9-1 in games in which Olsen has at least six assists.

Prior to its current six-game winning streak, Iowa had lost five straight games and the naysayers and doubters were starting to voice their displeasure.

Olsen struggled during the five-game losing streak as she only averaged 12.2 points and shot just 33.3 percent from the field in the five games.

It is certainly no coincidence that her individual surge has coincided with the team’s surge.

And while Iowa struggled on offense against Rutgers, Olsen and her cohorts still did enough to avoid what would have been a costly loss.

“The positive side is about five weeks ago I would have taken a game like this,” Jensen said after the win over Rutgers. “Your perspective can so quickly change when it’s tough sledding and it wasn’t going our way. And then it gets to a point where your expectations are higher and then you have a game that’s like, whoa.

“But sluggish games happen. We’ve just got to learn from it.”

Iowa could be in serious trouble if it comes out sluggish against the Buckeyes, who have forced 10 more or steals in eight consecutive games.

Part of the challenge for Iowa will be trying to contain Ohio State preseason All-Big Ten forward Cotie McMahon, who recorded a double-double with 33 points and 12 rebounds the last time the two teams played in Columbus.

The Buckeyes won that game 100-92 in overtime.

Iowa (18-7, 8-6) vs. Ohio State (21-3, 10-3)

When: Monday, 11 a.m.

Where: Columbus, Ohio, Schottenstein Center

TV: FOX

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series history: Ohio State leads the all-time series 40-37, but Iowa has won three of the last four games.