The 11-1 overall No. 4 Iowa women’s basketball team is set to conclude the 2023-24 season’s non-conference play with a matchup against Loyola-Chicago at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Thursday.
The Hawkeyes are coming off of a comfortable 104-75 win over Cleveland State last Saturday at the Hy-Vee Hawkeye Showcase at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines — just 10 minutes from Caitlin Clark’s hometown.
There, Clark’s 38 points on 9-of-16 from three moved her into ninth in scoring in NCAA women’s basketball history, passing former Iowa State Cyclone Ashley Joens.
Clark added five assists to the evening, but those dimes did not erase her nine of Iowa’s 19 turnovers in the game on 19 total team assists.
But beyond Clark, the Hawkeyes’ “big three” on offense seems to be solidifying itself, guard Kate Martin and second-year forward Hannah Stuelke beginning to fill the shoes of the departures of Monika Czinano and McKenna Warnock last season.
Martin scored 15 points with a perfect 9-of-9 from the free throw line in the game against Cleveland State, and she poured five assists and six rebounds into the night in addition. And Stuelke notched a double-double of 17 points and 13 boards.
The 11-win, one-loss beginning to the Iowa season marks the ninth of such starts in program history — as the Ramblers come to town on Thursday to give the Hawkeyes a chance to extend that opening to 12 wins.
And Thursday’s contest marks the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
The Ramblers are 6-4 overall and 3-1 on the road this year, currently enjoying a four-game win streak that most recently saw them sneak by SIUE in a buzzer-beating 77-74 win on Monday.
Loyola-Chicago also beat Northwestern, 73-68, on Nov. 29.
But the Ramblers have suffered losses to UIC, Brown, DePaul, and Cleveland State — the latter two of which Iowa has beaten this year, although the win over DePaul was in the Crossover at Kinnick exhibition game in October.
Loyola-Chicago is averaging just 64.7 points per game this year and holding its opponents to an average of 63.2 points per game — thus emphasizing the Hawkeyes’ need to continue to score at an efficient rate that is spread across the roster to outscore the Ramblers and win this contest.
But three Ramblers are averaging double-digits in scoring — and those three are the team’s three consistent starters.
Loyola-Chicago fourth-year guard Alyssa Fisher is averaging 13.1 points per game, and graduate student guard Sam Galanopoulos is averaging 12.6 points per game on 41 percent from the field and 46 percent from three.
Fourth-year forward Sitori Tanin is averaging 11.3 points per game on 43 percent from the field and leads the team in rebounds with 69 and blocks with 16 — so the Iowa three-ball could also be a weapon should Tanin remain a threat down low.
Up next
The Hawkeyes will take nine days off for the holidays before resuming Big Ten play as they host the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Dec. 30.
The Gophers are an impressive 10-1 overall this season, their only loss coming to UConn by 18 on Nov. 19.