No. 25 Iowa women’s basketball soundly defeated Illinois, 82-56, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday to move its win streak to five games.

Sophomore point guard Caitlin Clark scored 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 from beyond the arc. Clark also dished out seven assists and grabbed eight rebounds.

But the Hawkeyes’ defense allowed them to cruise through the game. Iowa forced 16 Illini turnovers while racking up eight steals and blocking three shots.

“I think defensively we’ve been pretty sharp,” Clark said postgame. “That’s always something we’ve been trying to work on throughout the year, but I think that’s kind of shown. Obviously, we’ve been a little more zone tonight, and we want to be able to play different defenses because it just makes us even more versatile.”

The Hawkeyes also forced the Illini to shoot 32 percent from the field and 33 percent from three point range.

“I think we kind of came out gunning, we knew what we were going to have to do and we came out stronger,” senior center Monika Czinano said.” We held them to five points in the first quarter, but that’s amazing defense from everybody, from one through five, so I was really proud of us.”

Senior guard Tomi Taiwo had a significant impact off the bench, scoring 14 points in 17 minutes.

Big Picture 

The Hawkeyes are on their longest winning streak of the 2021-22 season.

Iowa is now 12-4 and picked up their sixth conference win in the victory over Illinois. The Hawkeyes’ sole Big Ten loss is Northwestern, 77-69, on Jan. 6.

Anchor in the Middle

Czinano led all scorers with 21 points while also grabbing six rebounds and blocking one shot.

The senior has been consistent through 2021-22, averaging 20.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Czinano is also shooting 65 percent from the field and 86 percent from the charity stripe.

Up Next

Iowa will not play at Carver-Hawkeye Arena until Jan. 31 against Ohio State. In between, the Hawkeyes will play two road games.

Iowa only has one day to prep and travel to Penn State for a game on Tuesday.

The Nittany Lions come into the game with a record of 9-8 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten after falling to Wisconsin on Sunday, 69-57. 

Penn State is led by junior guard Makenna Marisa, who averages 21.8 points per game.

The No. 25 Hawkeyes will take on the Nittany Lions on Tuesday at the Bryce Jordan Center at 5 p.m. The game will also be aired on Big Ten Network.