IOWA CITY — Anyone expecting an uneventful Iowa women’s basketball evening got just the opposite with Illinois in town.
The Fighting Illini gave the No. 9 Hawkeyes all they could handle before Iowa pulled out an 82-78 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 26.
Here are five numbers that told the story.
14 … as in there were 14 lead changes in an epic Big Ten battle.
Back and forth these two teams went deep into the fourth quarter, trading blows all the way down to the final horn. Locked in a 73-73 tie, Chit-Chat Wright delivered her first points of the night on two free throws with 1:01 to go. At the time, that 75-73 advantage tied for Iowa’s biggest lead of the second half.
From there, Illinois climbed within two and sent Hannah Stuelke to the line for two free throws. She drained them both with 15.1 seconds to play. Following an Illini trey, Wright went back to the line and drained two more for an 81-78 lead with 4.7 seconds left. After a moving screen on Illini, Stuelke then went back to the line and split two free throws to ice the game.
11 … as in Iowa gave up 11 Illinois treys on 19 attempts
Buoyed by a relentless downtown attack, Illinois stayed right on Iowa’s hip all the way down to the end. The Fighting Illini were a perfect 8-for-8 from deep in the second half.
That nearly was enough for an upset.
50 … as in Iowa’s 50 points in the paint carried the Hawkeyes across the finish line.
With Illinois having lived in the paint all season, Iowa knew it likely had to do the same on this night. Stuelke’s injury scare put an early wrinkle in that, but she and Ava Heiden more than picked up the scoring slack from there.
Heiden finished with a career-high 28 points alongside Stuelke’s production (18 points). That duo combined for the first 12 points of the third quarter, and Heiden took the baton from there. She delivered 10 of the Hawkeyes’ first 12 points in the fourth quarter, and Stuelke finished it out at the line.
10 … as in Iowa scored the game’s first 10 points, then the battle started.
When Iowa raced out to a 10-0 advantage buoyed by easy buckets from Heiden, it appeared this one would be a vintage Carver-Hawkeye Arena rout.
Anything but. Credit Illinois for withstanding the Hawkeyes’ early punch and the wave of noise that came with it. From there on out, Iowa got all it could handle from the Fighting Illini. A 35-35 halftime deadlock gave way to a 56-56 tie after three quarters.
92 … as in Hannah Stuelke gave the Hawkeyes a scare 92 seconds in after suffering what appeared to be a right-arm injury.
Disaster seemingly struck the Hawkeyes again, when Stuelke fell to floor and grabbed her right arm/elbow with 8:31 remaining in the first quarter. A loose-ball scramble ended with Stuelke’s arm bending awkwardly.
Stuelke trotted to the locker room in obvious pain, only to return sporting a compression sleeve on her right arm. She checked back in with 3:06 left in the first quarter and didn’t seem to have any issues from there.
Given that Taylor McCabe’s season-ending ACL tear also happened with everyone barely settled in their seats, Iowa at least had experience with instantly regrouping. The Hawkeyes seemingly dodged a big bullet on the injury front.
Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa women’s basketball numbers that stood out vs. Illinois
Reporting by Dargan Southard, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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