Iowa comes back strong with rout of Penn State

IOWA CITY – There was no Connecticut hangover.

The Iowa women’s basketball team returned to Carver-Hawkeye Arena eight days after having a go at No. 1 Connecticut, a game in which the margin of defeat (26 points) matched the Hawkeyes’ turnover total.

Afterwards, Iowa Coach Jan Jensen made sure her team understood that in all likelihood, the season’s toughest challenge was now in the rearview mirror. It was now up to them to provide a response.

“That’s the one thing I was really worried about,” Jensen said after the 14th-ranked Hawkeyes rebounded with a 99-76 rout of Penn State before 14,998 fans Sunday afternoon. “How do you go into Christmas where you’re bummed? You wish you could have it back and you’re not feeling great about yourselves. So I think that was the challenge for our staff, is to really make sure – we did have practice that next day – is to really dissect it. Some of the things that I was not happy with, I pointed those out. But I did point out some of the things that we did do well.”

Iowa (11-2, 2-0 Big Ten) quickly turned the page against the Nittany Lions with an emphatic 16-0 first quarter explosion that gave the Hawkeyes a 23-8 lead, highlighted by a dozen points from sophomore point guard Chit-Chat Wright.

Penn State got no closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

“Chit-Chat is just really important for our team,” Jensen said. “The beauty of Chit-Chat and the hard thing, is she is such a pass-first point guard and she loves to defer. If there is a play that has three options and they are all for her, she will choose every other option before one of those three.”

Wright finished the game with 16 points, one of six Iowa players to score in double figures. Sophomore center Ava Heiden – matched against 6-foot-6 Penn State post player Gracie Merkle – led all scorers with 27.

“It was fun,” Heiden said. “Coming off of two tough losses against two really good teams (Connecticut and Iowa State), I tried to take what I could from those games to help me be successful.”

Iowa led by as many as 25 points and cut its turnover number nearly in half (14) from the Connecticut game. Senior Hannah Stuelke scored 14 points, while sophomore guard Taylor Stremlow started in place of Kylie Feuerbach – who injured her ankle against Connecticut – and also scored 14.

A pair of freshmen were impactful off the bench for Iowa. Addison Deal contributed 13 points in just over 17 minutes, while former Davenport North prep Journey Houston posted 11 points and 11 rebounds.

“I know my role here, I just do the extra things,” Houston said. “I try to get my teammates open. It’s not all about points. There is other stuff on the stats, too. So I just try to work hard to help the team.”

Iowa sophomore Emely Rodriguez – the object of suspension speculation – was back on the bench for the Hawkeyes. Jensen announced that Rodriguez “is back,” any issues were “handled internally” and Rodriguez is “day to day” with an injured back.

Tea Cleante led Penn State (7-6, 0-2) with 21 points, while Kiyomi McMiller and Merkle – both ranked among the top-seven scorers in the Big Ten – finished with 20 and 18, respectively.

Iowa hosts No. 20 Nebraska at 1 on New Year’s Day.

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