It was a California road trip to forget for Jan Jensen and the Iowa women’s basketball team.
On Thursday, the Hawkeyes lost to USC 81-69, a game where the final score doesn’t quite reflect how Iowa played. They returned to action on Sunday against No. 2 UCLA, and things didn’t go great. The Hawkeyes lost 88-65 to the Bruins, capping off a 0-2 West Coast trip and dropping to 9-2 in Big Ten play.
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It wasn’t all bad for Iowa on Sunday, but there are definitely some things that Jensen and the coaching staff will want to clean up before a home game with Minnesota on Thursday. Here are the biggest takeaways from Iowa’s tough road loss to UCLA.
Iowa had no answers for UCLA in the paint
The Bruins only made six 3-pointers in Sunday’s game and still won by 23 points. They did so by dominating the Hawks in the paint. UCLA had an astounding 56 points in the paint, outscoring Iowa by 30 in that facet of the game. They were led by National Player of the Year candidate Lauren Betts, who had 16 points, and Angela Dugali off the bench, who scored 22 points.
UCLA has done this to opponents all season long, so it’s no knock on the Hawkeyes specifically that they couldn’t stop them in the paint. But, this has been an issue for Iowa in its losses this season. Iowa State and UConn also had a lot of success in the paint against the Hawks. If you’re looking for an area of concern heading into the back half of conference play, this would be it.
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Ava Heiden’s second-half surge
It was a rough first half for Heiden, who had more fouls (2) than points (0) against a stout Bruin defense. That changed in the second half as Iowa tried to make a run in the game. The sophomore center poured in 19 points in the final 20 minutes of the game. She ended up leading Iowa in scoring, despite not finding the bottom of the bucket for the entire first half.
This was a great sign for Heiden going forward, as she was able to navigate a very tough matchup and foul trouble to put in a good performance. The Hawkeyes will need this kind of performance from Heiden throughout the rest of conference play and into the NCAA Tournament if they want to make a run.
Turnovers were costly
Iowa turned the ball over 19 times on Sunday, which led to 18 points for the Bruins. Many of those turnovers were unforced and killed any momentum that the Hawkeyes were trying to build. It’s already hard enough to beat UCLA as is, but that task becomes nearly impossible when the turnovers pile up.
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The Hawkeyes were averaging around 15 turnovers per game entering Sunday, a number that will unfortunately go up. It’s not easy, but Jensen’s team needs to clean up a few of those silly, unforced turnovers that happened against UCLA. If Iowa wants to compete in the upper echelon of women’s college basketball this season, those turnover numbers need to improve.
The sky isn’t falling
It’s going to be easy to let overreactions fly following a subpar California road trip, but some nuance is necessary here. The timezone shift and long flight are big deals, which no doubt played a role in Iowa’s slow start against the Trojans on Thursday. UCLA is one of the best teams in the entire country and has blown out almost every single team on its schedule this season.
While it’s certainly disappointing to come home with a pair of losses, the sky isn’t falling for Iowa this season. Don’t forget, this is a team that had won three games in one week against top-15 opponents not long ago. They’re a talented, but young and inexperienced group that will go through plenty of ups and downs this season. They’re in a lull now, but people would be foolish to count this team out.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Takeaways as Iowa women’s basketball drops lopsided game vs. UCLA
