Iowa women’s basketball ended its 10-day hiatus with a win over Western Illinois University on Tuesday, 92-65. The Hawkeyes now sit at 5-1 on the season and 1-1 in Big Ten play.

39 of Iowa’s 92 points came from the bench, which was pivotal in the win. Freshman center Sharon Goodman, junior forward Logan Cook, and sophomore guard Megan Meyer all posted career-highs in the win. Meyer put up 13 points and four assists in just 11 minutes on the court.

“We’re going to need a lot of people to contribute,” freshman point guard Caitlin Clark said. “We need solid play off the bench. And having those three, who all come off the bench and have career highs today, I think that speaks a lot to how they are as players. They’ve been working hard all week.”

Head coach Lisa Bluder went to her bench early, rotating all of her starters out within the first five minutes of the game. In total, 12 Hawkeyes saw the court Tuesday afternoon.

Sophomore McKenna Warnock was the only Hawkeye that did not play. Warnock did not dress for the game, and donned a walking boot on her left foot. Despite the injury, Bluder expects Warnock to be ready for Big Ten play next week.

“Coming into this game, we felt like we could really go to our bench,” Bluder said. “Usually at the beginning of every season, you typically have a few more of these type of games, where you can go to your bench heavily, and kind of work out those kinks in rotations and give people some competition minutes, see how they handle the competition versus practice. We haven’t had that this year. I was glad that we’re able to kind of accomplish that and have our bench come in and build some confidence.”

Cook noted that the confidence the Hawkeyes have gained early this season will be extremely beneficial to the them later in the campaign.

“I feel like with experience on the court, we get more confidence, and we just get more comfortable playing out there,” Cook said. “I think it’s going to be important going forward to the Big Ten. You never know when someone is going to be in foul trouble or anything.”

Bluder was especially proud of Cook, who posted 12 points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes. Cook is playing at both the four and the five positions for the Hawkeyes this season, and Bluder said Cook’s versatility allows the coaches to give her more minutes than she’s had in past seasons.

Goodman netted 12 points and nine rebounds in 14 minutes. In her career-high performance, Goodman attributed her success to her teammates’ abilities.

“It’s a team, so it’s, ‘What I can do to help?”” Goodman said. “The girls got me the ball, and I just kind of catch it and put it in the basket. I didn’t do much work before that. So, credit to my teammates.”

Although Bluder wished Goodman could have gotten one more rebound to finish the game with double-digit boards, she commended Goodman’s consistent rebounding performance and development from the start of the season, and said Goodman is always one of the leading rebounders in practice every day.

“The sky is the limit for that kid,” Bluder said.

With Western Illinois and the nonconference season officially behind them, the Hawkeyes will host Rutgers at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on New Year’s Eve at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on BTN+.