Another game, another statement performance from the Iowa women’s basketball.
The light was bright at the end of the tunnel when the Hawkeyes rolled to a 12-point lead in the third quarter, but being the elite team that No. 3 UCLA is, they stormed back and won by a narrow two-point margin.
It was a dogfight all the way down to the last tenth of a second. The victory over then-No. 4 USC and the near comeback win over then-No. 8 Ohio State set the stage for Sunday’s contest. It was viewed as a real chance to steal a win and boost their tournament hopes.
For an unranked team to consistently be in wire-to-wire battles against the best teams in the country is something to be proud of. But it’s now turned into an expectation. And it’s a let down to lose in this fashion, especially when it comes at the hands of Iowa’s own mistakes.
“We just take too many bad shots at the wrong time,” Jan Jensen said postgame. “Came down to rebounding. We did great in the first half, terrible in the second half… And then we just took some shots, and I can’t explain that. But [I’m] proud of them, they battled, and could’ve, wouldn’ve, should’ve.”
This was far from a perfect game from the Hawkeyes, but what kept them in the game was the fact that they made UCLA have just as much of an off game as they themselves were having.
“We really wanted to switch it up on them and throw a couple looks at them, which I thought that we did,” Taylor McCabe said. “We did really well doing some zone with some press, some man, and I really think that kind of threw up their game a little bit.”
Getting Lauren Betts in foul trouble in the first half allowed Iowa to make a second quarter run that gave them a three-basket lead heading into halftime. Getting Kiki Rice to foul out of the game late lifted some defensive pressure off their shoulders. The Hawkeyes also held the Bruins to 42 percent shooting and 20 percent from deep.
There are very few teams in the country that are harder to face than UCLA. The third-ranked team in the country led by 6-foot-7 center and National Player of the Year candidate Betts, the Bruins came into this one with one loss on the season — coming at the hands of USC and JuJu Watkins, who fell to the Hawkeyes in early February.
“Jan just did a heck of a job,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said. “What she has done from bringing that team from the beginning of the year to now, they are tough. They’re hard to guard. They know who they are. So credit to them.”
Close furthered her praise for the team with a very sincere statement.
“Their record is not reflective of how well they’re playing right now,” she said. “I think they are absolutely one of the most purposeful basketball teams we’ve had to play against. They do it in so many different ways.”
It doesn’t matter who the other team is, the Iowa women’s basketball team is as tough as any opponent can be.