Once again, the post play from sophomore Monika Czinano and senior Amanda Ollinger helped propel Iowa women’s basketball to victory, as it defeated Iowa State 75-69 in Ames. Czinano scored the points, while Ollinger secured the rebounds.

Czinano had 20 points on the night, including 12 in the first half after shooting 5-of-7 from the field. She started the scoring for the Hawkeyes with a wide-open layup on a second-chance opportunity after a nice pass from junior guard Alexis Sevillian just under a minute into the game.

Late in the first half, Czinano got hot, scoring eight of Iowa’s 11 points in the final four minutes. As usual, she made those field goals in the post.

The second half got off to a cold start for Czinano, as she missed all six of her shot attempts in the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter, she scored two layups in the first 90 seconds. These were the first four Hawkeye points of the quarter, giving them the lead that they would never relinquish.

“Monika really didn’t play that much last year, so she’s like a freshman out there,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. “I’m so excited about her growth. I think she’s getting better and better. She’s like a sponge, and she works so hard. I mean when you see her working so hard out there. That’s what she does every day, and I’m really happy for her, and I’m excited about the future of our program having her, too.”

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The 20 points are the second most points she has scored in her career. Her career-high came last week against Clemson, when she scored 24 points.

If it weren’t for Ollinger’s rebounding, the game would’ve looked a lot different for the Hawkeyes. She finished the night with 20 rebounds, dominating the glass for the Hawkeyes. She also had two points and four assists. Before tonight’s game, the most rebounds she recorded in a game was 13 against Princeton earlier this season.

Though she didn’t score in the first half, she had 10 of the team’s 17 rebounds.

Ollinger secured a key rebound with just under 70 seconds to go in the game to extend the Hawkeye possession when they were up 66-62, which led to Czinano making a layup as the shot clock expired at 47.4 seconds that was crucial in the victory.

Ollinger fouled out quickly after that, but it didn’t matter in the end. This was a nice follow up to her performance last week against Clemson, when she had 11 points and nine rebounds.

“I just knew my role, and sometimes the ball happens to fall your way, and that’s how it was for me and my teammates really picked me up, and I mean there the one’s that keep me going and keep me crashing,” Ollinger said.

The duo will get another chance to showcase their talents before finals, as Iowa returns to Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 2 p.m. Saturday to face North Carolina Central.