By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – With the rise of sophomore center Ava Heiden, the steadiness of sophomore point guard Chit-Chat Wright, and with the recent emergence of former five-star recruit Addie Deal, it’s easy to overlook the reliable senior from Cedar Rapids on the Iowa women’s basketball team.

But as No. 11 Iowa’s 75-68 victory over No. 15 Michigan State showed on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, senior forward Hannah Stuelke still is the driving force for this Iowa team, which has nine underclassmen on the roster.

The 6-foot-2 Stuelke stuffed the stat sheet in spectacular fashion; scoring 22 points, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out five assists.

“I’ve been feeling great, doing a lot of recovery because I realize I’m old now,” the 22-year-old Stuekle said in the post-game press conference. “It’s crazy.

“But these high-energy games give us a lot of fuel, especially at home. It’s been great.”

Iowa led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, but the Spartans kept chipping away at the deficit, cutting it to five points in the fourth quarter.

Stuekle then made her biggest basket of the game; a jumper from the baseline fading to her left that expanded Iowa’s lead to 73-66 lead with 2 minutes, 59 seconds let to play.

I was floating like a butterfly,” Stuelke said of her baseline floater.

She also made a steal underneath the Iowa basket in the final minute of the game after Michigan State had rebounded a missed shot by Iowa.

Stuelke’s performance on Sunday capped a productive week for her as she also scored 18 points and had eight rebounds and eight assists in a 74-66 victory over Oregon this past Thursday at home.

The 6-4 Heiden continued her rise by scoring 20 points, grabbing six rebounds and blocking two shots, while Deal had eight points off the bench, all which she scored in the first half.

Heiden joined Stuelke in the post-game press conference and they both joked about Stuelke’s baseline floater that helped to secure the victory.

“She knew that was going in,” Heiden said of Stuelke, who graduated from Cedar Rapids Washington High School. “When she was going up, she winked at me.”

“I did for sure wink,” Stuelke said.

Iowa improved to 16-2 overall and 7-0 in the Big Ten, matching its 7-0 start in conference play from two seasons ago, while Michigan State fell to 17-2 and 6-2 in the conference.

Iowa head coach Jan Jensen had high praise for Stuelke after Sunday’s win.

“I’m just really impressed. I’m so happy for Hannah,” Jensen said. “She just works really hard and battling in there with the bigs.”

Much is expected from Stuelke as the team’s veteran leader and most accomplished player. Jensen thinks that Stuelke might have been feeling some of that pressure early in the season.

“This senior year early, I think she felt a little bit of the tightness and sentimentality of being a senior and a little bit of the pressure,” Jensen said. “And then she just kind of freed up and now she’s just doing it with her actions as she’s talking more, even on the floor she was trying to direct them.”

There was plenty for fans to be happy about in the first half as Iowa led 41-29 at halftime, outscoring the Spartans by six points in both the first and second quarters.

Deal scored eight points in just nine minutes off the bench in the first half, and she also made a nifty Caitlin Clark-like-pass that resulted in a fastbreak layup for Stuelke, who had used her speed to beat the Spartan defenders down the court.

Heiden was called for her first foul with 7:45 left in the first quarter, but she avoided picking up another foul for the rest of the first half, as Jensen sat her at times on the bench to lessen he risk.

Stuelke led Iowa with 14 points in the first half on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, while Heiden scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds as did Stuelke.

Iowa shot 51.6 percent from the field in the first half, making 16-of-31 field-goal attempts, including 5-of-12 from 3-point range.

Chit-Chat Wright scored 11 points and recorded five assists, and she also drew the loudest cheer in a game filled with loud cheering as she made a shot from near mid-court right before the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter, giving Iowa a 22-16 lead.

“That was huge,” Jensen said. “It was just great. The weird thing was I usually don’t have feelings when you watch things like that. But where she shot it and where I happened to be standing, out loud I said, ‘that’s good’ because it was a long launch.

“Kids everywhere you get lucky when you hit them.”

Forward Grace VanSlooten led Michigan State with eight points in the first  half, but she only played nine minutes in the half due to picking up two fouls. She finished the game with 17 points.

Iowa will hit the road again for it next game on Thursday at Maryland, whose head coach is Cedar Rapids native Brenda Frese.