The No. 5 Iowa women’s basketball is in search of a bounce back with a contest against Nebraska on Saturday after a tough loss to Ohio State last week.

The Hawkeyes sat at No. 2 in the AP Poll going into Sunday’s contest with the now-No. 12 Buckeyes, who escaped with an overtime win upon unloading a massive 100 points on an otherwise consistently firm Iowa defense.

Caitlin Clark finished with a season-high 45 points on 12-of-25 from the field, 7-of-18 from deep, and 14-of-16 from the free throw line — in addition to three rebounds and seven assists on a costly seven turnovers.

But only two more Hawkeyes behind Clark scored in double-digits in the contest, and they were far behind the former AP Player of the Year.

Iowa guard Molly Davis finished with 14 and eight assists while forward Hannah Stuelke poured in 10 and seven rebounds — and an efficient plus-minus of 10 on the evening — but neither efforts were enough to save the Hawkeyes’ 15-game win streak from falling.

“That’s really tough that it was a loss that we ended on,” Iowa guard Kylie Feuerbach said of the defeat to Ohio State before the week-long break. “But our team is pretty good about moving on … Once we got back to practice, it seemed like our practice was the same as it usually is: hard-working. We definitely had some edge, and we were just ready to move on and let go of that game.”

With the Cornhuskers now coming to Iowa City on Saturday, the Hawkeyes will have an opportunity to get one back, feel the sensation of sweet victory once more, and move forward for that final stretch of the regular season.

“You want to get back on the winning track, right?” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said of her view of the rest of the season. “You just want to get back on that roll again … [We won 15 games in a row, so] let’s do it again.”

But that will, of course, require getting all scorers involved once again as well as a refocused defensive effort.

Nebraska is 13-6 overall this season and 5-3 in the Big Ten, so the Cornhuskers are by no means a walk in the park for the Hawkeyes.

But they are coming off of an 82-73 loss to Penn State on Jan. 21 despite notable Big Ten wins over Maryland and Michigan this season.

“Nebraska has been a little up and down depending on the day,” Bluder said. “I’ve seen them play very well, and I’ve seen them struggle at times. So I’m not sure which one we’re going to get.”

Nebraska is averaging 74.6 points per game while holding opponents to just 61.7, including snagging an average of a decent seven steals per game, but it has not quite yet faced a team with such offensive powerhouse potential like the Iowa Hawkeyes.

And the Cornhuskers are not the most efficient on offense themselves, this season averaging just 43 percent from the field, 33 percent from deep, and 74 percent from the charity stripe. Although they are averaging 17 assists per game, that number is offset by 15 turnovers per game too.

Forward Alexis Markowski is currently leading the way for Nebraska as she boasts an impressive stat-line average of 16.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game — highlighted in her 16-point, 19-rebound performance against Penn State the other day.

“She’s an excellent post player — she’s strong, and she does have that shooting range … that makes you guard her from farther out than you’d like to [on a center],” Bluder said. “But I just think it’s her strength … I’ve always been a fan. I think she does a really nice job.”

Markowski is by no means massive at 6-foot-3, but she certainly helps Nebraska out-rebound its opponents by a 10-board margin this season — so all five Hawkeyes on the court will need to box out and prioritize chasing the ball down when the shot goes up.

“It’s just that [the Cornhuskers] have a lot of people that really attack the boards,” Bluder said. “But yes, we have to make sure we for sure get [first-year forward] Natalie Potts and Markowski boxed out.”

Guard Jaz Shelley is the Huskers’ three-point shooter at a high volume, averaging 12.1 points per game on 33 percent from deep and 87 percent from the free throw line, although she is not a great finisher inside of the arc.

Shelley will try to snipe from three against the Black and Gold, but should the Hawkeyes chase her off of the line, a key piece to Cornhusker points will be silenced.

Still, Shelley is a threat beyond her shooting capabilities as she has amassed 100 assists this season and averages 5.4 of them per game in addition to an average of 1.6 steals.

“They have some three-point shooters, so [the key is] knowing the scout, knowing who to close out on — like Jaz Shelley, for example,” Feuerbach said. “She’s a great shooter and great player overall, so locking her up [is key] and then just playing our solid defense on the rest of the players as well.”

Natalie Potts — a frontrunner for Big Ten Freshman of the Year — rounds off the Cornhuskers’ big three as she averages 10.8 points per game on a whopping 57 percent from the field, but her 32 turnovers this season in significantly less minutes than Markowski and Shelley make her a target for changes of possession.

“She’s a power forward that would prefer to post up,” Bluder said. “But she’s really aggressive. I think she’s doing a really good job as a freshman, confidently posting up, rebounding extremely well on the offensive side of things … Some people in our conference aren’t able to guard that power forward down on the block, but I think we are.”