Michigan State women’s basketball falls at Iowa in top-15 clash

The Michigan State women’s basketball team found a way to overcome double-digit deficits in their last two road games at Washington and Oregon.

The Spartans weren’t quite able to do that for a third time on Sunday, Jan. 18.

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No. 14-ranked MSU fell short in its comeback attempt while suffering a 75-68 loss to No. 13 Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.

The loss ended a nine-game winning streak for the Spartans (17-2, 6-2) and was their first loss since falling at Wisconsin on Dec. 7.

“The first half was what really hurt us,” MSU coach Robyn Fralick said. “We got in foul trouble and I thought we were a little bit out of sorts. We needed to play smarter. (In the) second half I loved our fight. Every time they made a run we fought ourselves right back into the game. My message to the team was we’ve got to build off that moving forward.”

Iowa (16-2, 7-0) won its sixth straight and remained in a first-place tie atop the Big Ten standings with UCLA.

MSU trailed by as many as 17 points in the middle stages of the third quarter and got as close as five with 3:28 to play. The Spartans failed to get any closer though as Hannah Stuelke hit a key jump shot just before the shot clock expired to extend Iowa’s lead.

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“We gave ourselves a chance,” Fralick said. “We cut a two-possession game with under 3 minute but in those possessions we’ve got to do a better job executing.”

Stuelke had a game-high 22 points and nine rebounds for the Hawkeyes.

Grace VanSlooten had 17 points and seven rebounds and Jalyn Brown had 16 points to lead MSU. Juliann Woodard had 14 points off the bench for the Spartans.

MSU returns to play with an 8 p.m. matchup against USC on Thursday, Jan. 22, at Breslin Center.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Michigan State women’s basketball’s comeback falls shot at Iowa