By Hawk Fanatic

The Iowa women’s basketball team erased a 12-point deficit in the final 90 seconds of the fourth quarter against No. 8 Ohio State on Monday to force the President’s Day matinee into overtime.

But then Iowa couldn’t finish the comeback as Ohio State outscored the Hawkeyes 12-4 in the extra five-minute session to escape with an 86-78 victory at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.

The Buckeyes improved to 13-0 on their homecourt, while Iowa had its six-game winning streak come to an end, but not without putting up a spirited fight on the road against a top-10 team.

“I loved how they fought,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said of her team on the Learfield post-game radio interview. “They could have folded. But they never stopped fighting.”

Iowa had a critical shot clock violation in overtime that helped to shift the momentum to Ohio State’s side.

Iowa also struggled with foul problems throughout Monday’s game as three Hawkeye starters – Kylie Feuerbach, Hannah Stuelke and Syd Affolter – all fouled out of the game.

Ohio State attempted 38 free throws, but missed 12 of them, which helped Iowa make its dramatic comeback at the end of regulation.

“I thought the game was a little bit inconsistent both ways,” Jensen said of the officiating. “We didn’t have all of our strength in overtime. Syd was out. Kylie was out. That’s a huge difference right there.

“But we do foul too much. Our defense has been good. But when we have our trouble, and not just necessarily the person on the ball, it’s our help side when it comes over, we want to block it instead of just coming over and holding our ground, playing straight up, turn and boxing. We’ve got to work on that skill, and we’ve been working on it. But that’s just a little lack of discipline.”

Iowa fell to 18-8 overall and 8-7 in conference play and now has five days to prepare for another top-10 opponent with third-ranked UCLA up next Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“That’s a tall order at home, but we have a week to try and get a game plan and just give it our best shot,” Jensen said. “I love how we’re playing. I’m just a little disappointed that we couldn’t close it out. But I’m really proud of them and I love them.”

Senior guard Lucy Olsen led four Iowa players in double figures with 27 points. The Villanova transfer scored 12 points in the final 1 minute, 22 seconds of the fourth quarter, suddenly making the improbable seem possible for Iowa.

She also made two free throws with three seconds left in the fourth quarter to push the game into overtime.

But then Iowa just seemed to run out of gas, and players, in overtime.

Feuerbach finished with 15 points before fouling out late in regulation, while Affolter had 11 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out.

Stuelke also scored in double figures with 10 points before fouling out.

Iowa outscored the Buckeyes 30-23 in the fourth quarter to force the game into overtime.

But with multiple starters having fouled out of the game, the Hawkeyes just didn’t have enough in overtime to get over the hump.

Iowa only made 8-of-27 shots from the field in the first half, including 1-of-8 from 3-point range, and trailed 34-21 at halftime.

The Hawkeyes never led at any point in the first half and committed nine turnovers with most of them caused by Ohio State’s relentless full-court pressure.

Ohio State also had seven steals in the first half.

Olsen led Iowa with seven points in the first half, but she spent much of the second quarter on the bench with two fouls.

Stuelke scored six points in the first half, while Affolter and freshman Teagan Mallegni had seven and six rebounds, respectively, in the first half. Mallegni was Iowa’s second leading rebounder in the first half despite only playing five minutes off the bench.

No other player for Iowa score more than three points in the first half.

Iowa started the second half on an 8-3 scoring run, trimming the deficit to 37-29 and causing Ohio State to call a timeout with 6:57 left in the third quarter.

Affolter then converted a traditional 3-point play that cut the deficit to 40-35 with 5:11 left in the third quarter.

Iowa outscored the Buckeyes 23-17 in the third quarter and trailed 51-44 heading to the fourth quarter.