Hawkeyes slide past Rutgers, extend winning streak to six games

It was far from the Hawkeyes best performance of the season, but sometimes you’ve just got to find a way to put a W on the board. On Thursday night, the Iowa women’s basketball team (18-7, 8-6) found a way, grinding out a 55-43 win over Rutgers (10-15, 2-12) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was a trying night on the offensive end, but the Hawkeyes stepped up the defensive intensity, holding the Scarlet Knights to under 40 points until the final minute of the game.

After enduring a five-game losing streak last month, Jan Jensen says it’s all about perspective when reacting to a game like this.

“Your perspectives can quickly change when it’s tough sledding and it’s not quite going your way, but then you get to a point where your expectations are higher (on a winning streak) …Five weeks ago, I’d have taken a game like this,” said Jensen. “Sluggish games happen…I just felt like we never were getting our pistons firing at the same time.”

One area of the team’s performance that did not please the first-year head coach was their start to the game. Jan says there are certain things throughout the course of a game that can be forgiven, but sluggish starts are not one of those things. The Scarlet Knights, down their leading scorer, jumped out to a 10-2 lead over the first 4:27 of the game, with a Mya Petticord three-pointer forcing Jensen to take an early timeout.

“They just started really sluggish and that’s what I was upset about. I can handle missed shots, I can handle giving up a banked in three, but I can’t handle lukewarm water. That’s what I do not like.”

“I thought after that timeout we got a little bit more aggressive, but for whatever reason, we just couldn’t get our offense going.”

The Hawkeyes were just 9 of 30 (30.0%) from the floor in the first half, but, defensively, they were able to hold Rutgers to just 12 points over the final 15:33 of the half. While many players on both sides were unable to get shots to fall, Lucy Olsen was still firing on all cylinders.

Coming off of a season-high 32 points at Nebraska, Olsen scored eight of Iowa’s ten first quarter points and then lit it up from behind the arc in the second quarter. She buried three triples in the second quarter, helping lead a 26-9 run that took up nearly 13 minutes. Olsen’s 19 first half points, and four made threes got the Hawkeyes into the locker room with a 28-22 lead.

“Whatever it takes for us to win,” said Olsen. “I’m getting more comfortable in the offense and I’m finding where the shot opportunities are, instead of trying to force something and make something happen…We’re so good that anybody can step up on any night and the last few nights, the ball has just been falling for me.”

BIG LU HAS 19 🤯@LucyOlsenbball x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/FsJESHCNo6

— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) February 14, 2025

While Iowa was never really able to find the separation they were looking for on the scoreboard, they were able to lock down on the defensive end, holding Rutgers to a season-low 43 points.

“Nothing is going to be perfect in a basketball game,” said Syd Affolter. “Everyone’s going to make a mistake, some night we might not shoot as well as we’d like, but the fact that we can rely on our defense, a bit more than previous years is really important.”

Although the scoring plays were few and far between in the second half, the Hawkeyes made enough shots to pull out the win. Syd Affolter knocked down a pair of third quarter triples, while Lucy Olsen tacked on a pair of made jumpers to her tally. Then, in the fourth, a Kylie Feuerbach made three finally gave Iowa some separation, while a 7-0 run made it 53-37. That was enough to close out the 55-43 win.

“Credit to Rutgers, they haven’t hung it up, they’ve had a lot of different adversity…I tried to tell our team before the game, don’t look at the record, don’t look at the record because every game’s got a different flow,” said Jensen. “Our defense really held, but it was just our offense.”

Jan Jensen said, despite the choppy performance, a gritty win like this is something that can look back on when they get to the postseason and every game is win or go home.

“When you get into the one and done at the Big Ten Tournament and any tournament after that, it doesn’t matter how you get to the next one. You’ve just got to get there, and I think that’s what we can draw upon.”

On the night, the Hawkeyes shot 20 of 54 (37.0%) from the floor and 7 of 23 (30.4%) from three-point range. Along with the contributions of Lucy Olsen, Syd Affolter logged a double-double 10 points, 14 rebounds, marking her fourth in the last eight games. Iowa won the rebounding battle 37-31, pulling down 28 of 34 (82.4%) defensive rebounds and 9 of 34 (26.5%) offensive rebounds. They have now outrebounded their opponent in 23 of 25 games.

Up Next: The Hawkeyes travel out to Columbus for a Monday morning tip on President’s Day against ninth-ranked Ohio State. Tipoff is set for 11:00am CT on FOX.