The Hawkeye women’s basketball team will try to close out its regular season on a positive note as it hosts Illinois on Saturday evening in Carver-Hawkeye. Tip-off is slated for 5 p.m.

Iowa (17-12, 7-10 Big Ten), enters the game on the heels of an 81-68 loss to Penn State on Wednesday. The Fighting Illini (9-19, 2-15 Big Ten) are on a two-game skid after dropping a 71-43 contest to Michigan State.

For three Hawkeye seniors, their Saturday appearance in Carver-Hawkeye will be their last in front of the home crowd. Center Nicole Smith, forward Kali Peschel, and forward Claire Till will be honored before the game.

Till underwent season- and career-ending knee surgery on Monday.

Doomed by a slow start against Penn State, the Hawks will try to get out of the gate quickly in hopes of burying the Illini.

“We weren’t ready to start the game,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said after the Penn State loss. “We have to figure it out and be ready right from the tip.”

Currently sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble (the latest ESPN bracket had Iowa listed in the “First Four Out” category), a loss to the last-place team in the conference wouldn’t do the Hawks any favors.

Junior guard Ally Disterhoft knows how important these final games are. The loss to Penn State, a game that was billed as a “revenge game,” didn’t produce the desired results.

Disterhoft, who averages 14.9 points and 6 rebounds per game, said the team would remain confident despite continuing rough patch: It is 2-5 in the last seven games.

“We do believe we’re better than we’ve shown, and we do believe we’re better than the teams we’ve lost to,” Disterhoft said earlier this week. “People have grown up on this team, and that’s good to see. We’re going to need that for the future.”

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The Illini will present a major problem for the Hawkeyes in the form of Chatrice White, a 6-3 freshman forward.

White, averaging 18.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, has kept Illinois afloat during its disappointing season. The Shelby, Nebraska, native ranks sixth in the Big Ten in blocks, turning in 1.9 per game.

Containing the Illini star will be another key to shutting down Illinois and improving the Hawkeyes’ conference record before the beginning of the Big Ten Tournament.

The tournament, which has the opportunity to be used as a platform to vault the struggling Hawkeyes into the NCAA Tournament, will begin on March 2 in Bankers Life Field House in Indianapolis.

The Hawkeyes are in line for the No. 10 seed.

Hawkeye freshman guard Tania Davis agreed with Disterhoft, saying the team’s mindset has mostly remained the same, even in the midst of its current slide.

Davis said that when the Illini take the court in Carver-Hawkeye, they’ll face a Hawkeye squad that’s as determined as ever. After all, the Hawks are fighting for their ninth-straight NCAA Tournament berth.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” Davis said. “We’re focused on the next one at hand.”