Hawkeyes overwhelmed by Oklahoma, close the season at 23-11

The way the Iowa Women’s Basketball team had been trending over the final two months of the season, it didn’t seem farfetched that they could knock off 3rd-seeded Oklahoma on their home floor and punch their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen. An early Iowa lead quickly faded, and the Sooners (27-7) showed that they were the better team, overwhelming the Hawkeyes (23-11) in multiple facets en route to a 96-62 win.

“It just wasn’t supposed to happen tonight,” said Lucy Olsen.

It was a well-deserved win for Jennie Baranczyk and Oklahoma, but for Iowa, it was a loss that doesn’t fully illustrate the season that they had. That was the message from head coach Jan Jensen, who finished up first year after taking over Lisa Bluder.

“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,” said Jensen. “I told them they didn’t deserve to have an ending like that but sometimes in life we don’t get what we deserve.”

The Hawkeyes, playing in front of a road crowd in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018, jumped out to an early 10-4 lead, with Kylie Feuerbach knocking down a couple of three-pointers. A quick punch to get the game underway. However, the Sooners responded swiftly and ferociously, going on a 16-1 run to end the opening quarter, taking a 20-11 lead. Iowa did not make a field goal over the final 6:51 of the quarter.

“We weren’t really hitting (shots). Without some bigs, really big bodies, you can’t really slow or stop Oklahoma. You’ve got to score with them,” said Jensen. “I just thought it was kind of the roll of the dice because when we haven’t performed well this year, we’ve had too many scoring droughts.”

Fast start aside, the Hawkeyes spent much of the opening half sputtering on the offensive end. Lucy Olsen, after a 1/7 start, found some rhythm in her offensive game, knocking down five of her final six shots of the half. However, if it wasn’t her, it was nobody. The rest of the team was just 4/17 (23.5%) in the first half.

On the other end of the floor, Iowa was just trying to hang on by a thread, hoping that their offense would eventually start clicking. The Sooners, clearly in control on the glass, shot just 7/28 (25.0%) in the second quarter, but pulled down ten offensive rebounds, stringing out possessions that needed to be transition opportunities for Iowa. For all that transpired, a Lucy Olsen three-pointer cut the OU lead to 38-27 at the break. Not ideal, but far from over.

The hope was for that to be the small spark the Hawkeyes needed going into the locker room. Starting the second half, Hannah Stuelke converted a reverse layup, cutting the deficit 38-29, but Sooners center Raegan Beers went to the floor in a heap, drawing the attention of the officiating crew. Although the various replay angles made the contact look incidental, Stuelke was tagged with an intentional (flagrant) foul.

“I just asked some unbiased people at the scorer’s table, and I don’t know if they were NCAA, one was an Oklahoma. I said, what’s your gut on that? They’re, like, we’re a little surprised it got upgraded,” said Jensen. “But you know what? We needed to make more shots.”

That second part, it never happened. The Hawkeyes were never able to get the engine to fire on all cylinders. Meanwhile, the Sooners were flexing their muscles on the glass and started knocking down three-pointers. Things went south quickly.

After Payton Verhulst hit the two intentional foul free throws, Skylar Vann buried an open three-pointer. Then a triple fell for Liz Scott and then, Verhulst got a deep triple, from the Norman city limits, to make it a 49-32 advantage. Jan Jensen took a timeout in attempt to slow things down, but the writing was on the wall. The Sooners were in major control.

“When it goes south on you, there’s just a different mentality when you’re in a one-and-done tournament,” said Jensen. “In the timeouts, you’re trying to reel it back in. As a coach, you’re trying to slow the tension and so forth.”

For the first time all season, the Hawkeyes were fighting a non-competitive, losing battle. Skylar Vann knocked in another triple to crack the 20-point mark on the lead, with the lead ballooning to 68-43 after the third quarter.

“I think it was just they’re really good. They’re athletes. They hit the portal hard. They’re bigger, faster, stronger. I told you yesterday the degree of difficulty to guard all that.”

The final stats regarding the battle on the glass is pretty overwhelming to look at, considering that Iowa came into the game ranked 27th in the country in rebounding margin and 9th in defensive rebounding. Oklahoma bludgeoned the Hawkeyes on the glass, outrebounding them 64-33, including an incredible 23 offensive rebounds that turned into 22 points.

“I think going into the game, that was definitely something we knew was going to be a key asset to the game,” said Kylie Feuerbach. “They did a great job at positioning. We probably could have done a little better. But we knew going into the game their box-outs and rebounds would be really important.”

After sitting in a precarious position with a 12-7 record in the middle of January, the Hawkeyes managed to stack a lot of wins down the stretch, headlined by an upset win over USC. That late season success carried over into the NCAA Tournament, with a dominating performance in the tournament opener against Murray State, but it would have taken a herculean effort to beat Oklahoma on this day.

“We just hit a buzzsaw tonight and that’s the only thing,” said Jensen. “I really didn’t see that coming, but as the game was unfolding, I could see it in Syd’s eyes and Lucy’s eyes, the end…This group didn’t deserve that, but I told them, don’t remember that, remember the ride.”

On the night, Iowa shot 42 of 66 (36.4%) from the floor and 10 of 25 (40.0%) from three-point range. Three Hawkeyes scored in double figures, led by Lucy Olsen with 20 points, while Kylie Feuerbach added 14 points. Meanwhile, Oklahoma, they shot 33 of 81 (40.7%) from the floor and 11 of 34 (32.4%) from three-point range. Skylar Vann led all Sooners with 17 points, while Waterloo native Sahara Williams added 13 points and nine boards. In total, six OU players scored in double figures.

Up Net: The Hawkeyes enter the offseason set to lose Lucy Olsen, Syd Affolter, Addi O’Grady and AJ Ediger to graduation. Jan Jensen and her staff will likely turn to the transfer portal, looking to make a couple of additions.