The Iowa women’s basketball team survived a late rally from No. 15 Michigan State to win, 75-68, Sunday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Hawkeye frontcourt duo Hannah Stuelke and Ava Heiden combined for 42 points on 18-of-27 shooting and added 15 rebounds for Iowa, which improved to 16-2 and remained undefeated in the Big Ten with a difficult conference schedule on the rise.
Second-year point guard Chit-Chat Wright finished third on the team with 11 points and tied for first with five assists with Stuelke, who posted her second consecutive game with at least 18 points, five rebounds, and five assists. The Hawkeyes shot 53 percent from the floor and improved to 2-2 against ranked opponents this season.
Michigan State (17-2, 6-2) employed an aggressive defense early on, relying on a full-court press in the opening quarter as the two squads battled for much of the first frame until Stuelke scored four consecutive points in the final 90 seconds to give the Hawkeyes a 19-16 advantage before assisting Wright on the final in-bounds play of the quarter. Wright swished an attempt from half court near the scorers’ table to extend the lead.
Iowa led by as many as 17 in the third quarter before Michigan State cut the deficit to 10 entering the final frame. Spartan guard Rashunda Jones scored a pair of layups and teammate Jalyn Brown connected on a jumper to cut the lead to five with 3:36 remaining. The Stuelke and Heiden duo responded in kind, with Stuelke drilling a 15-foot jumper and Heiden adding a pair of free throws to end any threat from visitors.
Iowa first-year guard Addie Deal, fresh off a career-high 18 points in Iowa’s last game against Oregon, led the Hawkeye reserves once again with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting and was once again perfect from beyond the arc, connecting on both of her three-point attempts.
With the victory, Iowa has now won 10 of the last 13 games against Michigan State, including each of the last three matchups. The triumph was the Hawkeyes’ fourth Quad 1 victory, which ties them for fifth-most in the nation, per HawkeyeSports.
Up Next
Iowa’s difficult stretch of games begins with a road trip to College Park to take on No. 12 Maryland. The Hawkeyes and Terrapins tip off at 5 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, Jan. 22. The contest will air on Peacock. Maryland is 17-3 overall and ranks sixth in the Big Ten with a 5-3 mark. The Terrapins have dropped two of their last three contests, each to a ranked team in Ohio State and UCLA. Junior Ouch Okananwa leads the squad with 16.8 points per game.
After Maryland, Iowa hosts No. 14 Ohio State then travels west for pair of games against USC and No. 3 UCLA.