In the winding seconds of the first half against No. 8 Virginia Tech on Thursday night, Iowa women’s basketball guard Kylie Feuerbach chucked up a three-pointer instead of running down the clock so Iowa could take the final shot before the break.
Despite the third-ranked Hawkeyes shooting 1-for-15 from downtown in the first half, they went into the locker room leading the Hokies by one.
When Feuerbach stepped back out on the court in the second half in Charlotte, North Carolina, she redeemed herself quickly.
With 3:25 left in the third quarter, the guard took the game into her own hands.
The Hawkeyes had a tight two-point lead before Feuerbach stole the ball from two-time ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley. The guard drove down the court and forced a shooting foul, leading to two points from the charity stripe.
A couple of plays later, she hurried past Carys Baker and drew contact as she laid the ball in the net for an and one.
The show didn’t stop there.
Following a Baker turnover, Feuerbach came off the left wing and took a pass from star guard Caitlin Clark, hit a jab step that put Hokie defender Cayla King on skates, and hit nothing but net from behind the arc.
The triple marked Feuerbach’s eighth point in 1:11, propelling the Hawkeyes to a 73-63 advantage and forcing a Hokie timeout. As Feuerbach walked back to the Iowa bench, she was swarmed with support from her teammates.
Breakin’ ankles 😳@KylieFeuerbach x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/pR2LTFC6ud
— Iowa Women’s Basketball (@IowaWBB) November 10, 2023
Feuerbach swatted a shot in the final 30 seconds to add on to her gritty second half performance and help secure a 80-76 win over a fellow Final Four team last season.
“This was a great early season win. Virginia Tech is a great team. Even though we shot the ball so poorly, we got to the boards and got to the free throw line. I’m really proud of this group tonight,” head coach Lisa Bluder said postgame.
What makes Iowa’s first ranked win of the year even more special for Feuerbach is that she didn’t see the floor for the national runner-up Hawkeyes last season.
On Aug. 5, 2022, Bluder announced Feuerbach tore her left ACL earlier that week in practice and would need surgery.
In 2021 — Feuerbach’s first season with Iowa after transferring from Iowa State — she was often the first off the bench. Hailing from Sycamore, Illinois, Feuerbach played in all 32 games and averaged 3.4 points, 1.3 rebounds, and one assist per contest.
“I’m proud of Kylie,” Clark said following Thursday’s game. “I thought she came in and really gave us a great spark off the bench, something that we kind of needed, and it’s great to see that after she suffered an ACL injury last year.”
Feuerbach has played 17 minutes in each of the first two games this season. She didn’t record any statistics in Iowa’s season-opening win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 6.
Bluder’s squad will return to action in front of a sold-out crowd at Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls on Sunday.
