Nearly a decade of dominance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena crumbled Thursday night with Megan Gustafson in the stands. The 2019 National Player of the Year and thousands more Hawkeye fans watched a result that hasn’t occurred since 2007 – a Minnesota win over Iowa in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes fell to the Gophers, 91-85, snapping an 11-game win streak over their northern rival and extending this season’s skid to three.
Iowa dropped to 18-5 overall and 9-3 in the Big Ten with the loss. Second-year center Ava Heiden led the Hawkeyes with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, followed by Chit-Chat Wright with a double-double of 20 points and 12 assists. Hannah Stuelke added 14, and Journey Houston contributed 15 off the bench.
Minnesota featured six scorers with at least nine points, led by junior guard Grace Grocholski with 21. The Gophers entered the contest shooting 45 percent from the floor and 36 percent from long range. On Thursday, they shot 51 and 71 percent, respectively. The Gophers improved to 17-6 on the season.
Iowa head coach Jan Jensen gave credit to Minnesota, winners of five straight and the No. 1 team in Division I in turnovers per game. The Gophers finished just above their season average with 11, while the Hawkeyes finished with only eight. Nevertheless, Jensen felt the defense didn’t pick up the slack. She called her unit “uninspired.”
“I’d say we spent about 70 percent of our practices on defense and the matchups, understanding who we had to guard, and how good their three-point shooting was,” she said. “ But that was a very poor performance on the defensive end.”
The Hawkeyes threatened a comeback on several occasions, making a last gasp with a Wright three-pointer to cut the deficit to eight with 48 seconds remaining.
A pair of missed free throws from Minnesota gave Iowa another opportunity, and Houston splashed her third triple of the season to cut the lead to five. Minnesota added a free throw, and Taylor Stremlow’s three fell short of the rim to end any chance of what would’ve been a 20-point comeback.
“Our energy, we waited until the last minute to get our energy instead of coming up and hitting them hard,” Wright said.
Prior to the final minute, Iowa nearly cut within double-digits on multiple occasions down the stretch in the fourth quarter, but momentum immediately swung in the direction of the visitors. Heiden appeared to score an and-one to cut it to 10 with over six minutes remaining, but was called for an offensive foul.
The whistle cost Iowa again after Stuelke cashed two free throws, and Taylor Stremlow was called for a foul on the ensuing inbounds play with 3:13 remaining, and Iowa down 12. Minnesota converted 1-of-2 at the line but capitalized on a turnover with a banked-in three-pointer to bring the lead to 16.
Jensen remarked how her team flashed some resiliency late, but coming off a winless West Coast trip to Carver, where the Hawkeyes boasted an undefeated record, she felt the squad perhaps expected to win.
“The fan base is going to think that,” Jensen said. “But you cannot let that thought in your mind because I know how good they are.”
The Hawkeyes connected on their first six attempts from the field, starting down low with post buckets from Stuelke and Heiden and extending outward to a mid-range jumper from Wright and a triple from Deal. Iowa led by as many as eight, but Minnesota wouldn’t relent, scoring six points on three Iowa turnovers and another 14 in the paint to trail by one at the end of the first quarter.
When Minnesota kept pace, Jensen saw her team’s mindset shift.
“We were playing a little bit not to lose instead of to win,” Jensen said.
An 8-0 Gopher run put the visitors ahead by five before Wright sank a three along the wing to ignite the crowd. Undaunted, Minnesota scored the next seven points to lead by as many as nine. The Gophers’ lead ballooned to 13 before Houston drilled a three-pointer in the final minute of the half. The Hawkeyes went to the locker room down, 49-39, allowing the most points in the first half so far this season.
“It’s not the result I cared about at halftime, the score, it was how it happened,” Jensen said. “And that’s on me. I really thought we had been prepared. I loved our game plan. I really have to study that, because I’m a little stymied tonight with that.”
For Jensen, part of the Hawkeyes’ defensive miscues involved matchup assignments. Stuelke couldn’t keep pace with the quicker Grocholski, who finished 7-of-14 from the floor. Jensen then turned to senior defensive specialist Kylie Feuerbach and then Deal, but neither was much more effective. When Minnesota’s Mara Braun (16 points) and Amaya Battle (12 points) began heating up, Jensen was stretched thin.
“When two people start feeling comfortable, this team is really difficult to guard,” Jensen said. “The ship is kind of sinking … you just can’t try a zone with a team like that. I mean, I should’ve maybe, but it’s scary to.”
Iowa shot 48 percent from the floor in the first half, but Minnesota outpaced it with a blistering 58 percent mark, including 6-of-7 from downtown. Plus, it held a 19-12 advantage in the rebound department, contributing to six second-chance points. Minnesota finished the game with a 41-28 advantage on the glass and a 14-7 edge in second-chance points.
Up Next
Iowa is off until Feb. 11, when it hosts No. 24 Washington at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Start time is at 6:30 p.m. on Big Ten Plus. The Huskies are 17-6 overall and seventh in the Big Ten. Junior Sayvia Sellers leads the team with 19.1 points and 3.6 assists per game.