CHAMPAIGN, IL – The Iowa women’s basketball team is determined to ramp up their offensive presence after shooting errors and turnovers resulted in a costly 62-57 loss to Illinois on Thursday night.
While the Hawkeyes came out strong to start the game, their offense dwindled as the game progressed into its back half, and shooting accuracy, especially from the charity stripe, decreased.
Iowa’s 18 turnovers were another sore spot. The Hawkeyes have been a turnover-prone squad all season long, averaging a Big Ten-worst 16.8 turnovers per contest. In fact, Iowa has recorded 20 or more turnovers in each of its other three losses.
The Hawkeyes fell just short of that number on Thursday, but the end result remained the same.
“It’s the turnovers,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said after the game. “Eighteen is not as bad, but they were crucial. We had stretches where there were two or three in a row, something good for a while, three in a row, something good. They come in stretches.
Free-throws also played a large role in determining the outcome of this game.
While the Illini only had eight shots from the free throw line in their win, all eight were easy points, with Illinois shooting at a perfect 100 percent clip from the stripe. On the flip side, Iowa made the same amount, but went only 8-of-17 from the stripe, good for a 47 percent clip.
“Some of those shots, they go in,” third-year Hannah Stuelke, who had a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds in the loss to Illinois, said. “Sometimes they don’t. That’s unfortunate, but we’re going to continue hitting the gym, practicing.”
With the two issues of shooting errors and turnovers combined, the Illini led the Hawkeyes in many key categories. Illinois held themselves to 10 turnovers on the night, much less than Iowa’s 18. The Illini converted 16 points off of those Hawkeye turnovers.
Not to be outdone, Iowa led in several key areas, including total rebounds and points in the paint. However, Illinois’ 14-7 lead in second chance points was another example of how the Illini were able to surmount the Hawkeyes on this night.
Both teams struggled to shoot from behind the arc, with Iowa only making 25 percent of its attempts from downtown. The Hawkeyes also shot a measly 40 percent from the field, highlighted by a disappointing eight-minute scoring drought that spanned the end of the first half to the midway point of the third quarter.
Ultimately, these persistent problems led the Hawkeyes into their fourth defeat of the season. Even with a loaded conference slate ahead of it, Iowa remains optimistic that they can improve in the areas in which they were lacking against Illinois.
Now 12-4 overall and 2-3 in league play, the Hawkeyes won’t have much time to dwell on this defeat, as they will return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Jan. 12 for a matchup against Indiana. The Hoosiers have won eight of their last nine contests with the lone loss coming against No. 1 UCLA on Jan. 4.
“The Big Ten is a long season,” fourth-year guard Lucy Olsen said. “There’s a lot of teams in there. [We have to] take every game one by one and hopefully we can knock off some other teams on the way.”