Iowa women's basketball: Lucy Olsen dominates, Hawkeyes thump Nebraska for 5th straight win

Iowa women’s basketball: Lucy Olsen dominates, Hawkeyes thump Nebraska for 5th straight win

Posted by author February 11, 2025 Basketball

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LINCOLN, Neb. − A year ago at Nebraska, Iowa women’s basketball held a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter only to squander it all and lose by three points in an agonizing finish.

So when the Hawkeyes started the fourth quarter with a 14-point advantage here again Monday at Pinnacle Bank Arena, there certainly wasn’t a feeling of total comfort.

But there was no fourth-quarter meltdown this time.

Lucy Olsen made sure of that.

We’ve said this a few times lately: The Villanova transfer may have just turned in her best game as a Hawkeye. Olsen registered 32 points, the most she has scored in black and gold, as Iowa took care of business in an impressive 81-66 win over the Cornhuskers.

Iowa has now answered a five-game losing streak with a five-game winning streak in improving to 17-7, 7-6 in the Big Ten Conference. Nebraska has dropped four of five and fell to 16-8, 7-6.

Part of Iowa’s five-game losing streak was a disheartening 87-84 overtime loss against the Huskers on Jan. 16, in which the Hawkeyes blew an 11-point fourth-quarter lead behind poor free-throw shooting.

This impressive performance avenged that loss, rewarding the Hawkeyes with a season split against the only Big Ten Conference opponent they’ll play twice in the regular season.

While Nebraska hung around thanks in part to a big disparity in free throws, the Hawkeyes stayed resilient. Iowa’s lead was 52-46 until back-to-back 3s late in the third quarter by Taylor McCabe and Sydney Affolter (in a matter of 16 seconds) pushed Iowa’s lead to double digits for the first time.

From there, Iowa set sail.

“Let’s Go Hawks!” chants rang out at Pinnacle Bank in the final minute as Iowa salted this one away.

Olsen shot 12-for-20 from the field and added six rebounds and seven assists. McCabe knocked down five 3s and finished with 17 points, all in the second half against her home-state team. Affolter finished with 13 points.

Alberte Rimdal led Nebraska with 20 points.

A foul-laden first half saw Iowa rely on freshmen

Freshman Ava Heiden sprung from the bench with 39 seconds left in the first quarter, after Hannah Stuelke was called for her second foul. Addison O’Grady was also tagged with two early fouls, triggering Jan Jensen to insert Heiden – who had not played in any of Iowa’s last three games.

At the 7:17 mark of the second quarter, a third key Iowa player already had two fouls in forward Sydney Affolter. So, in a 24-24 game, Jensen relied on her senior point guard (Olsen) and four true freshmen.

That included Heiden, who was up to the challenge. She pumped in six second-quarter points on some quick drives to the bucket.

Ever since Jensen moved Stuelke to the “5” position permanently, that led to Heiden seeing a diminished role. Not because she hadn’t progressed, but because Stuelke is terrific and O’Grady has taken a big jump forward as a senior. Heiden has been patiently waiting, and on Monday got the call. She played nearly 10 straight minutes until picking up a second foul of her own.

All of the freshmen played with a spark. After Nebraska whittled Iowa’s nine-point lead to tie it up at 24-24, the Hawkeyes went on a 12-3 run – with all four freshmen getting a bucket each. Olsen’s three-point play was followed by a Heiden off-balance 2, a sweet Aaliyah Guyton pull-up, a mid-range Taylor Stremlow jumper and a Teagan Mallegni drive plus foul for a three-point play and 36-27 Iowa lead with 2:16 left in the first half.

Stuelke and O’Grady didn’t play a minute in the second quarter; Affolter played just 2:43. Jensen got to halftime with her team leading, 38-35, and had Olsen (18 first-half points) and her freshmen to thank.

This was a big game in the Big Ten standings

Every win the rest of the way matters for postseason positioning.

The Hawkeyes jumped into a four-way tie for ninth place in the Big Ten standings, matching the Cornhuskers, Minnesota and Oregon with 7-6 league marks. The top nine in the Big Ten earn one bye for the March 5-9 Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, meaning those teams avoid one of the three Wednesday games in the tourney (15 teams qualify; three don’t).

Indiana (7-5) is currently in ninth and owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over Iowa; Oregon (which beat Iowa) and Minnesota (which Iowa defeated Thursday) are tied for 10th at 7-6.

Iowa’s five remaining games, with Big Ten record and place: home Thursday vs. Rutgers (2-11; T-14th place), Monday at Ohio State (9-3; third place), home Feb. 23 vs. UCLA (11-0; first place), Feb. 26 at Michigan (8-5; seventh place) and the home finale vs. Wisconsin (2-11; T-14th place).

Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 30 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group (free for subscribers) at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.