Hawkeyes shake slow start, cruise past Northern Illinois

Even though the Hawkeyes season opener wasn’t the cleanest, most crisp performance, nobody will hold it against them. A win is a win, and Jan Jensen is 1-0 as a head coach. With a new Final Four banner hanging in the rafters, the Iowa Women’s Basketball team officially kicked off the 2024-25 campaign on Wednesday night defeating Northern Illinois 91-73.

There were moments throughout the night that showed the potential the Hawkeyes possess, but they searched for consistency throughout the night. After taking a few breaths, Jan Jensen says she understands that there’s going to be some stretches of inconsistency early in the year with a young team.

“This is a game where you can get internally frustrated because you feel like you should do this better and be better, all those things, but I also have to take some breaths, because we are really young.”

“When I’m in the game, I’m thinking, wow, we need to stretch (the lead), we need it to be bigger, then I put my hat of improvement on (and think) it’s probably going to look like that a little bit at times.”

The good news? The win for the Hawkeyes was never in doubt. The trailed for just 2:49 and expanded their lead to as large as 25 points late in the third quarter. Still, there’s plenty to work on going forward.

“I try not to grade until I watch film. We had some moments, but we just really lacked a lot of consistency and that’s the thing I would probably grade pretty low.”

Entering the game as 38.5-point favorites, Iowa found themselves trailing 11-8 midway through the opening quarter after a three-pointer from NIU guard Sidney McCrea. Back-to-back baskets from Addi O’Grady gave the Hawkeyes the lead, but they shot just 30.0% from the floor in the first and only led 15-14.

“It’s probably good that this game afforded us to not look so great at times, and then we look decent in a couple of minutes, because when Sunday hits, it takes on a whole new feel,” said Jensen.

Early in the second quarter, it was freshman Taylor Stremlow providing a spark off the bench. After a layup and an assist to Lucy Olsen, Stremlow found Kylie Feuerbach in transition for a three-pointer to cap a 10-0 Iowa run. NIU was forced to take a timeout trailing 25-16. The Verona, Wisconsin native has looked very comfortable playing the first minutes of her Hawkeye career.

“Taylor is a rare freshman that plays without fear,” said Jensen. “She doesn’t make a pass and look over right away like, am I going to come out? She’ll make the pass because she thought it was a good pass…I love what I saw out of her tonight.”

KYLI3.#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/0v8m8G8DD6

— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) November 7, 2024

A 5-0 run from NIU to close the half sent Iowa to the locker room with a 45-34 lead, but the main concern was the health status of star forward Hannah Stuelke. She sat out the entirety of the second quarter after tweaking her ankle, but returned to the court in the second half. It was a major scare for what turned out to be a minor bump.

“I saw her on the floor and my heart dropped for a second,” Jensen said. “Then (assistant coach) Raina told me she was good…I don’t even know what happened.”

A third quarter push extended the Hawkeyes lead to 72-52 and the win was all but secured going into the fourth quarter. Lucy Olsen was aggressive on the offensive end in the second half, finishing with a team-high 19 points and seven assists. Meanwhile, Kylie Feuerbach was all over the stat sheet, totaling 14 points, nine rebounds, six steals and five assists. It’s the type of performance she, and the coaching staff have been waiting and hoping to see this season.

“I think it’s been being consistent in the gym and getting my confidence up, knowing that I put in the extra work to get to where I’m at,” said Feuerbach. “I have great girls around me and they’re all very uplifting, and regardless of the day, I know that I’m going to have them around me…it’s nice to see that hard work pay off.”

Iowa finished with all five starters in double figures scoring, something that occurred just once all of last season. Taylor McCabe hit three from long distance, finishing with 11 points. Inside, Hannah Stuelke and Addi O’Grady combined for 23 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Teagan Mallegni added 14 points off the bench after standing out in the exhibition game.

Since 1999, the Hawkeyes are 25-0 in season openers and although there were some choppy moments, Jan Jensen says these are the games where you are still trying to figure things out.

“You’re still trying to figure out who your people are, right? We have a lot of depth, but you’re trying to figure out how and when and who and what combinations…We’re kind of messing with it, and then you’ve got something going, but you want to try this piece, so we might have set everybody up for that inconsistency a little bit.”

Up Next: The Hawkeyes will travel to Charlotte for the Ally Tipoff against the Virginia Tech Hokies on Sunday afternoon. Tipoff is set for 4:30pm CT on ESPN2.