IOWA CITY — In each of the past two seasons, the Iowa Hawkeyes have come within one of being the best women’s college basketball team in the country.
Even those Hawkeye teams haven’t accomplished what the current Iowa Hawkeyes have accomplished so far this season.
Iowa extended the fourth-best start in program history over the weekend, improving to 8-0 with a pair of wins at the Cancun Challenge over Rhode Island and BYU. The 22nd-ranked Hawkeyes scored the first 12 points of the fourth quarter to snap a 49-49 tie against Rhode Island, putting away a 69-62 Thanksgiving Day win over the Rams before scoring 43 points in the second half of a 68-48 win over BYU on Friday.
Jan Jensen is the first Iowa women’s head basketball coach to start her tenure with eight straight wins. The balance of the Hawkeyes was on full display in the Cancun Challenge as Iowa picked up a pair of wins without Lucy Olsen as the team’s leading scorer with 17.3 points per game was sidelined for the tournament with a large gash on her knee due suffered when she tripped at practice.
“What’s great about this team is that they’re great at responding,” Jensen said. “We’ve been trying to get deeper and deeper. We need to see who is going to be able to play multiple positions and who compliments who well. That’s what makes this year kind of fun. In recent years, we’ve kind of known who the big two or three are. This year, it could be Lucy or it could be someone else that comes in off the bench and makes a big impact for us.”
Hannah Stuelke took her turn to lead Iowa in Friday’s win over BYU, scoring 16 points while grabbing eight rebounds to lead No. 22 Iowa to a 68-48 victory over BYU at the Cancun Challenge on Friday night. Addison O’Grady scored four of her 12 points during a key 10-3 run early in the third quarter, building a 35-22 lead with six minutes remaining in the period.
Aaliyah Guyton added a career-high 11 points for Iowa on Friday in just her second game of the season. Guyton made her debut for the Hawkeyes during Iowa last home game, a 72-43 win over Washington State on Nov. 24, scoring two points on a pair of free throws in her first minutes on the court since suffering a torn ACL last January during her senior season at Peroria (Ill.) High School.
“I really didn’t know how the game was going to play out and I know Aaliyah was just cleared fully the previous week,” Jensen said. “Anyone who has come back from an injury of any kind, that is a long road home. When you sign with your dream school and then suffer an injury like that, it’s very emotional.
“I know Aaliyah had the quiver-lip going. She even told me she was so nervous. We had a little moment after the game. She got a chance to feel the Hawkeye family embrace her. That’s one of the coolest moments I’ve had as a head coach so far. Aaliyah is so special to us. She wanted to be a part of her program, even if it meant sitting behind someone.”
O’Grady was Iowa’s top scorer on Thanksgiving in Iowa’s seven-point win over Rhode Island, leading the Hawkeyes to a victory with 18 points reaching double figures for the sixth time this season. Iowa’s 72-43 win over Washington State just five days earlier lifted the Hawkeyes to a 6-0 start, good enough for the Hawkeyes to break into the Associated Press top 25 national rankings.
Stuelke added 13 points against Rhode Island. Kylie Feuerbach scored 12.
“It certainly made the flight much more enjoyable,” Jensen joked. “I feel so grateful for all these kids that have stuck with throughout this transition. The kids are working their tales off. I think you see that on the court. The beauty of this team is that, they want it so much, they actually get tighter. I’m trying to figure out ways to keep them loose and having fun.
“The tough sledding is because they want it so much for each other, they it want it for me and they want it for these fans. The coolest part is that they’ve found a difference way to win. That’s with their defense. They still feel like they have things to work on, but we keep getting wins even while they continue to work hard. I love them for that.”
Iowa, now ranked 17th, is 8-0 for the first time since starting the 1993-94 season with 11 straight wins. The Hawkeyes will face their toughest test yet facing Tennessee in the Champions Classic at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday.
“I’d like to think as we keep getting better and better, those combinations will be a little tougher for the scout,” Jensen said. “When you have to put 8-10 people on a scout and you really want your team to know personnel, that’s a little bit trickier at times.”
