The Iowa women’s basketball team is now 5-7 in the Big Ten and tied with Rutgers and Michigan.

Its goal of finishing the regular season with a 9-9 record might be a difficult task to do with only six games remaining against top tier conference opponents such as Ohio State and Minnesota. The Hawks have lost to Purdue, Indiana, and Penn State.

Looking at just its last two games, Iowa has made mistakes that other teams have been able to capitalize on.

Turnovers over the last two games: 32

The Hawkeyes have had a major issue with turnovers this season, and it’s been especially obvious lately. However, even though their turnovers were high, the opponents they faced also committed a large number of turnovers.

Freshman Tania Davis and junior Ally Disterhoft combined for 8 turnovers in the loss against the Hooisers. Sophomore Whitney Jennings committed 6 turnovers in the contest against the Spartans, while Davis committed 4.

Iowa does not go very deep in its lineup, and when the starters play heavy minutes, their turnover rates have a good chance at rising. The Hawkeyes still have the worst turnover margin in the Big Ten, at minus-2.1. The Hawks average 16.1 turnovers per game.

Points given up in fourth quarter: 55

In both contests against Michigan State and Indiana, the Hawks held on to solid leads until the fourth quarter.

In the loss against Indiana, Iowa lost a 17-point lead when the Hoosiers kept pushing through much of the third and recaptured the lead in the fourth quarter. From there, Iowa never led and ended up walking away with another Big Ten loss.

In the fourth quarter alone, Indiana was 100 percent from downtown, making all of its 3-pointers (4-of-4.) The Hoosiers were also 83.3-percent from the field. Indiana outscored Iowa 32-16 in the fourth quarter, to come on top.

Sketchy defense in the second half has been a problem for the Hawkeyes. While they’ve worked on these mistakes countless times, they still occurs. The 32 points Indiana scored on Iowa was just 2 points higher than what Michigan scored in the fourth quarter (30) to win against Iowa as well.

Michigan State outscored Iowa 23-19 in a close battle in the fourth. It could be that they’re just tired, but it seems as if the Hawks lose their confidence in fourth quarters, which ends up to the team losing its lead.

25-of-39 from the free-throw line

The Hawkeyes had countless opportunities to capitalize on the scoreboard when the players were sent to the charity stripe.

Against Michigan State, Iowa was 2-of-5 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Sophomore Christina Buttenham and freshman Megan Gustafson both missed key free throws down the stretch, which did not help.

Iowa also shot 50 percent from the charity stripe against Indiana in the fourth. If the Hawkeyes had executed on the line, it may have changed the outcome in one or both of their games.