By Hawk Fanatic

Jennie Baranczyk will always be a Hawkeye as the saying goes, but that didn’t matter for about two hours on Monday as her Oklahoma women’s basketball team crushed Iowa 96-62 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Sooners improved to 27-7 and will advance to the NCAA Sweet for the first time in four season’s under Baranczyk, while Iowa finished the season 23-11 and fell short of making the Sweet 16 for just the second time in the last five seasons.

Monday’s loss in Norman, Oklahoma marked the end of Jan Jensen’s first season as the Iowa head coach, and the end of Lucy Olsen’s first and only season with the Hawkeyes.

Jensen and Baranczyk embraced in the handshake line after the game.

Olsen, a 5-foot-10 guard who who transferred from Villanova, did all she could to keep Iowa in the game, scoring 20 points.

But the No. 3 seed Sooners, who made nine 3-point baskets in the second half, just had too much firepower on both ends of the court.

Olsen was substituted for late in the fourth quarter and she burst into tears on the bench knowing that her brief career as a Hawkeye was over.

“I’m super grateful that I got the chance to play here,” Olsen said. “There were a lot of ups and downs, but super proud of the team and everyone became my family.

“Got the best coach here. I’m just super grateful for it and wouldn’t want it any other way. It just wasn’t supposed to happen tonight.”

Jensen faced a daunting tasking in moving on without all-everything point guard Caitlin Clark, who led Iowa to runner-up finishes in the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons and finished her career as the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer with 3,950 points.

Most of Clark’s supporting cast also had to be replaced, and Lisa Bluder, the program’s all-time winningest head coach, retired last May.

So, when Iowa lost five straight games in January, the naysayers started chirping and questioning the decision to promote Jensen to head coach.

But then Iowa responded to the adversity by winning 11 of its last 15 games.

“As I told our team, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted,” Jensen said. “Certainly, the way that we played wasn’t how we had been playing. But credit a really good Oklahoma team.

“But I hope what people will remember about this season is what these young women did with probably one of the most difficult rebuilding or reloading jobs. It took us a while to put it in the rearview mirror a lot of the questions about Caitlin and company, a lot of the questions about that era and back-to-back, all the things and the championship and the NCAAs.

“But when we did and we allowed this team to become who they could be, then it really started to blossom. I think we ended up winning it was 11 out of the last 15 games. And they were, are just a really great group of young women. I couldn’t be more proud of them. I’m just really — the only thing I’m sad about is that it ended like this, but credit Oklahoma.”

Oklahoma built a nine-point lead in the first quarter, continued to build on its lead in the second quarter and then pulled away in the third quarter.

Iowa, which was seeded sixth in its region, had eight turnovers in the first quarter and trailed 20-11 heading to the second quarter.

The Sooners closed the first quarter on a 16-1 scoring run.

Oklahoma played most of the second without two starters that were on the bench with two fouls, but Barnaczyk’s squad still built a double-digit lead in the quarter and led 38-27 at halftime.

Olsen made a 3-point shot from the baseline right before the halftime buzzer, cutting the deficit to 11.

But then Oklahoma scored 30 points in the third quarter to put the game away.

And now the Sooners are on to the Sweet 16 for the first time under Baranczyk.

“We obviously get another game,” Baranczyk said. “And we get another opportunity to play an incredible basketball game in the Sweet 16. We haven’t done that. Here’s another big moment.

“So I’m excited to see us continue to respond. Are we going to take that joy in or go back and be, like, the moment’s big? So it will be fun to be able to see, but the journey is not over, which is awesome.”

Senior guard Kylie Feuerbach scored 14 points and excelled on defense like always for Iowa.

Feuerbach, who transferred from Iowa State after her freshman season in 2021, recently decided to return for a sixth season. Iowa also has a deep and talented freshmen class that made significant contributions this season and a highly decorated 2025 recruiting class, featuring five-star combo guard and California native Addie Deal, ready to climb on board.

“These girls I’m with on the floor always instill confidence in me and I instill confidence in them,” Feuerbach said. “Every single year that I’ve played here it’s the same. It’s just the way the culture is. And I’m very grateful for that.”