Iowa women's basketball: Six in double figures in 91-73 win over NIU

The Iowa Hawkeyes used a 14-0 run early in the second quarter to make easy work of the Northern Illinois Huskies en route to a 91-73 victory. It was Jan Jensen's first win as head coach with a lineup that featured four new starters.

Lucy Olsen, Villanova's coveted transfer, led the Hawks with 19 points in shooting on Sept. 17 as her midfield game went as advertised. She was 8/13 from two and added 7 assists in 35 minutes. Iowa's other four starters all reached double figures, as did freshman Teagan Mallegni.

The Hawkeyes' return to larger roles played well

The biggest revelation in Game 1 appears to be Kylie Feuerbach. As a Hawkeye, she has always shown her potential as a shooter and defender, and tonight it all came together. She had 14 points, 9 boards, 6 steals and 5 assists in a fantastic all-around performance.

Also in attendance were Addy O'Grady and Taylor McCabe, both of whom played their roles really well. O'Grady's 12 points came on a solid 6 shots and 14 minutes, and McCabe was 3/7 from deep and scored 11 points.

Hannah Stuelke twisted her ankle late in the first half and returned in the second half to score all 11 points. We know what she's capable of, but it seemed like she was trying to figure out how to make room in Jensen's two big lineups.

Defense and rebounding showed impressive jumps

Led by Feuerbach's 6 steals, the Hawks added another 7 by forcing a total of 25 turnovers and scoring 27 points from them. The hands were active and I was impressed with how Olsen navigated ball screens to create deflections. Their best stretch of the game was the first part of the second quarter when the Huskies only had two baskets in the first seven minutes. They also added 7 blocks, led by Taylor Stremlow's 3.

In terms of rebounds, Iowa allowed eight offensive rebounds (27% of NIU's misses), but made hay on its own offensive boards with 14 (39% of misses). Playing with two bigs can make up a bigger part of the offense, and that was evident on Iowa's second possession of the season when they grabbed four o-boards, leading to a Taylor McCabe three-pointer. The key will be converting them into points quicker – they had just 11 second-chance points.

It was definitely a new look group

While I thought Iowa went too far in developing the chemistry we saw in the Clark/Bluder years, they still had some of the old reserves of what we expected. Everyone seemed to have the green light (and took it) and there was a real effort to pick up the pace with three capable ball handlers on the court at all times. Without Clark, however, the main play seemed to be a make-or-miss pass out of the backfield to the wing with some QUICK shots. Really funny. It will be exciting if they reach the 31% mark they achieved tonight.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic of the night was Mallegni's 14 points. As Chad Leistikow described in an offseason column: The McKenna Warnock competition is here. Nice size at 3 or 4 and can shoot the three (although she was only 1/5 tonight).

Next: Sunday, November 10th B.C Virginia Tech at 4:30 p.m. CT (Charlotte, NC)

Statistics broadcast