By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen has described Georgia transfer Dani Carnegie as a “bucket getter” and that was certainly the case in Thursday’s exhibition against Division II Maryville.

The 5-foot-9 Carnegie, who is from Mount Vernon, New York, scored 30 points, including 18 in the first half, as Iowa cruised to a 124-67 victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

She made 11-of-14 field-goal attempts, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range.

“Dani has that ability to kind of create something and see some things happen and see them before,” Jensen said in the post-game press conference, and with Carnegie sitting to her left and with first-year forward McKenna Woliczko sitting to her right.. “She’s got a good sense, and I think working her into the system, you’ve got to remember these guys have been here just since June. And she played a whole different type of system.

“So she’s trying to learn the system and get everyone involved, but also we’re trying to not to thwart all those things that she can do individually.”

Carnegie was among six Iowa players that scored in double figures, along with All-Big Ten center Ava Heiden (19), McKenna Woliczko (14), second-year forward Jocelyn Faison (14), third-year point guard Chit-Chat Wright (13) and fourth-year guard Amari Whiting (10).

Carnegie and the 6-4 Heiden were both named to the 2026-27 Naismith Trophy Women’s College Player of the Year Watch List on Thursday.

Iowa’s starting lineup in addition to Carnegie consisted of Heiden, Wright, Whiting, and Woliczko, who is from San Bruno, California, and a former five-star recruit.

Woliczki and second-year forward Journey Houston both led Iowa with 10 rebounds.

Carnegie and Whiting both came to Iowa from the transfer portal after playing last season for Oklahoma State and Georgia, respectively.

Third-year guard Taylor Stremlow was the first player off the bench for Iowa followed by Houston.

Maryville bolted to a 9-5 lead on three 3-point baskets, but then Carnegie and her cohorts started clicking on offense as Iowa built a 25-13 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The lead grew to 54-32 by halftime as Iowa shot 56.3 percent from the field in the first half, making 18-of-32 attempts, including 5-of-15 from three.

Iowa is coming off a season in which it finished 27-7 overall and 15-3 in the Big Ten.

However, the season also ended sooner than expected as Iowa lost to Virginia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Carver-Hawkeye Arena last March.

It marked the second straight season that Iowa was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament in the second round.

Only five players are back from that team, but those five players – Heiden, Wright, Stremlow, Houston and center Layla Hays – are using the early exit from the Big Dance as motivation for this season.

Even though Thursday’s exhibition didn’t count on Iowa’s record, it still was closer to a real game than practice, and it also gave fans their first glimpse of the new-look Hawkeyes.

Iowa continued to pull away in the third quarter as Carnegie became more of a facilitator. She threw a nifty pass to the 6-2 Woliczko for a fastbreak layup in transition. Woliczko was running almost at full speed when Carnegie hit her in stride near the basket, much to the delight of the fans.

With her decision to transfer to Iowa, Carnegie has been reunited with Chit-Chat Wright. They were teammates at Georgia Tech in the 2024-25 season, becoming close friends.

Their chemistry on and off the court was a big factor in Carnegie’s decision to be a Hawkeye.

“Everything happens because of my teammates,” said Carnegie, who averaged 17.8 points per game for Georgia last season. “They put me in the right position and where I need to be and it’s just whatever I need to do to help the team win.”

The chemistry between Carnegie and Wright chemistry was easy to notice in Thursday’s exhibition, though there were also some teaching moments for Jensen, who called a timeout early in the fourth quarter with Iowa leading 103-60.

Maryville had made back-to-back wide open threes in transition against Iowa’s five starters and that didn’t sit well with Jensen, who then let her players know about it.

“I don’t care how much we’re ever up or who we’re playing,” Jensen said. “I’m not going to let it slide. And I think they want to be held accountable.”

Carnegie made a basket shortly after play resumed, and then she made her final basket before leaving the game with 6:22 left to play, and with Iowa leading 112-62.

The games will start to count on Monday when Iowa hosts Towson in the season opener.