Hawkeyes overwhelmed by Lady Vols pressure, fall to Tennessee at the Women's Champions Classic

It was nearly an incredible escape, maybe even one that would have impressed a guy like Houdini. Despite an avalanche of turnovers, for more than 35 minutes, it looked like the Hawkeyes might just be able to overcome all of the mistakes to pull out a win over Kim Caldwell’s Lady Vols. In the end, the load of turnovers became too much to handle, and everything came crashing down. Tennessee finished the game on a 14-1 run over the final 3:43 to sink the 17th-ranked Hawkeyes, 78-68. It’s the first loss of the Jan Jensen era, snapping an eight-game win streak to begin the season.

The storm of pressure that Kim Caldwell’s squad employed should not have come as a shock. The Lady Vols came into Saturday’s contest, ranked third in the country in turnovers forced per game (28.0) and, unfortunately, the Hawkeyes became of the latest victim, turning it over 30 times.

“There’s definitely some things that we can look at, and certainly, what sticks out like a sore thumb is those 30 turnovers,” said assistant coach Abby Stamp on the postgame radio show. “I think early, they were against the press and as we got within the game, we just had way too much trouble in the quarter court, continually trying to do things that we knew weren’t working.”

“We weren’t able to make as many in game adjustments and respond to them the way that we would have liked to see.”

Lucy Olsen, in her first game back after suffering a serious gash on her knee in Cancun, finished with a team-high 23 points and five assists. However, she was one of five Iowa players with at least four turnovers. Still, Olsen’s scoring was big in several moments, particularly in the first quarter to help the Hawkeyes to an early 22-18 lead.

Although the turnovers continued to pile up over the course of the game, Iowa was still able to hang onto a lead and when they relinquished it, it was only for a moment. The Hawkeyes ball handling issues were obvious, but got partially offset by an impressive effort on the glass. Tennessee ranked first in the country in offensive rebound percentage (49.6%), but were dominated on the glass. Iowa boxed out and outhustled Tennessee, winning the battle on the boards in impressive fashion (48-33). They pulled down 37 of 50 (74.0%) on the defensive end, and managed to grab 11 of 31 (35.5%) on the offensive boards.

In spite of everything that went wrong throughout the night, a 6-1 run by Iowa, fueled by three baskets from Addi O’Grady gave the Hawkeyes a 62-59 fourth quarter lead. Kim Caldwell took a timeout with 6:00 remaining, and for a moment, it appeared as though Iowa was headed for a grueling, hard-fought win. They needed one more push on offense and a few more stops on defense.

Instead, the dam broke. All of the mistakes that had been slowly building up became too much to overcome. The Hawkeyes didn’t know it, but they were dying a slow death, and the knockout blow came swiftly.

Talaysia Cooper was held to just four points in the first half, but was tremendous when the Vols needed her to be. She scored back-to-back baskets, giving Tennessee a 68-67 lead with three minutes to play. In a spot where Iowa had answered all night, Syd Affolter committed her sixth turnover of the game and Tess Darby hit her third three-pointer on the other end of the floor. Two more turnovers led to two more baskets from Talaysia Cooper and that made it 75-67 with under two minutes to play. An 11-0 run by Tennessee over the span of 120 seconds was the difference.

Defensively, Iowa held up against the Vols offense that came into the game averaging 95.0 points per game. Tennessee shot just 39.0% from the floor and knocked down just 7 of 29 (24.1%) from three-point range. For the Hawkeyes, Addi O’Grady finished with a double-double, 17 points and 11 rebounds. Hannah Stuelke struggled, converting just one of her eight shot attempts, but totaled eight points, ten rebounds and five assists. The one stat that Iowa could not overcome: 30 turnovers that led to 42 Tennessee points.

Up Next: The Hawkeyes return home for an important in-state battle against the Iowa State Cyclones at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 8:00pm CT on FS1.