No. 14 Iowa escapes with a 67-58 women’s basketball win at Northwestern

(Note: This report was written in Cedar Rapids)

“Road wins are hard,” Ava Heiden said, and this one was harder than anyone expected.

No. 14 Iowa overcame foul trouble to its posts and a rash of turnovers Monday night, escaping with a 67-58 Big Ten women’s basketball win over Northwestern at Welsh-Ryan in Evanston, Ill.

“We’ll grow from it and hopefully apply it to the next game,” Heiden said in a postgame BTN interview.

Playing just 18 minutes due to foul trouble, Heiden scored a game-high 23 points (including the Hawkeyes’ first 12), and Iowa (13-2 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) moved alongside UCLA atop the league standings.

Crisis averted.

Iowa headed into Chicagoland as a 27 1/2-point favorite, but this was no gimme. Northwestern (6-9, 0-4) was deadlocked with the Hawkeyes with less than 2 minutes left in the third quarter, but Iowa eventually prevailed and sent the Wildcats to their ninth consecutive defeat.

The Hawkeyes closed the third quarter with a 9-2 run for a 50-44 advantage, then took its first (and only) double-digit lead at 62-52 on Hannah Stuelke’s free throw with 1:42 left.

Northwestern for 3-pointers from Casey Harter and Caroline Lau to close within 62-58, but Chit-Chat Wright and Heiden combined for five free throws in the final 50 seconds.

Heiden made 9 of 11 shots from the floor, including her first five. She was 6-of-7 in the first quarter, but everybody else was 0-for-8, and Iowa led only 13-9.

It remained a grind throughout.

Heiden picked up her second foul with 0:55 left in the first quarter, and didn’t play the remainder of the half.

Northwestern took a 27-23 lead on Grace Sullivan’s hook at the 2:37 mark of the second quarter, but the Hawkeyes closed the half with a 9-2 run and took a 32-29 advantage into the locker room.

Sullivan finished with 28 points to lead all scorers.

Wright added 12 points for Iowa. The Hawkeyes were guilty of 20 turnovers.

Iowa continued to be without starter Kylie Feuerbach and key reserve Emely Rodriguez, along with Kennise Johnson and Jada Gyamfi.

The Hawkeyes will play at Indiana (11-5, 0-4) on Sunday.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com