Iowa women back among the nation’s Top-10 elite

By DOUG FEINBERG

The Associated Press

Iowa has gotten off to a strong start in Big Ten play, winning its first seven conference games.

The 10th-ranked Hawkeyes have the difficult part of their schedule in front of them with contests against Maryland, Ohio State, USC and UCLA in their next four games. The gauntlet starts Thursday at Maryland. A victory would give Iowa its best start in the conference since the 1995-96 team won its first 11 Big Ten games.

Iowa moved into the top 10 of the AP women’s basketball poll this week for the first time since Caitlin Clark’s senior season two years ago when the team finished No. 2. That was the last time the Hawkeyes started conference play 7-0.

The Hawkeyes are tied with UCLA atop the Big Ten standings with Michigan and Ohio State a game behind. This next stretch will go a long way to determining Iowa’s place in the Big Ten race. The team has continued to have success at home in front of sellout crowds. The Hawkeyes are 10-0 this season in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Iowa has been on a roll since losing to No. 1 UConn right before the holidays. The team has won every game since led by senior forward Hannah Stuelke. She averaged 20 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.5 assists in wins over Oregon and then-No. 15 Michigan State last week.

“This senior year early, I think she felt a little bit of the tightness and sentimentality of being a senior and a little bit of the pressure,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said. “And then she just kind of freed up and now she’s just doing it with her actions as she’s talking more, even on the floor she was trying to direct them.”