No. 9 Iowa vs. Illinois women’s basketball glance: Time, TV, game notes (Feb. 26, 2026)

What: No. 9 Iowa (22-5, 13-3) vs. Illinois (19-8, 9-7), Big Ten women’s basketball

When/where: 8 p.m. Thursday, Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City

TV: BTN

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network affiliates

Iowa’s next game: At Wisconsin, 2 p.m. Sunday

What to know: Though Iowa’s Senior Day celebration was Sunday, this game marks the final regular-season home game for Hannah Stuelke, Kylie Feuerbach, Taylor McCabe and Jada Gyamfi.

It also marks the return of Illinois sophomore guard Aaliyah Guyton, who played her freshman season at Iowa.

The Peoria native has played in 23 games, making eight starts and logging 19.7 minutes per game. Guyton is sixth on the team in scoring, at 6.4 points per contest.

If the Big Ten tournament was today, Iowa would be the 2-seed. The Hawkeyes are tied for second with Michigan and own the head-to-head tie-breaker if they remain tied.

Iowa has won four consecutive games, including that 62-44 victory over Michigan on Sunday.

Sophomore post Ava Heiden is the Big Ten player of the week, and the Naismith and USBWA national player of the week, after posting 24.0 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in three victories last week. She was 33-of-44 from the field.

Illinois is on a three-game win streak to climb into an eighth-place tie in the Big Ten. The Illini was second in the nation in free-throw percentage (.816).

Berry Wallace, a 6-foot-1 sophomore forward, leads the Illini at 18.6 points per game.

Iowa has won 12 straight against Illinois at Carver; the Illini’s most recent win here came Feb, 2007. Illinois won last year’s meeting, 62-57, in Champaign.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com