Nebraska women’s basketball continued its struggles Monday with an 80-67 loss to No. 15 Iowa at Pinnacle Bank Arena. The Cornhuskers (16-10, 5-10 Big Ten) have dropped five straight and eight of 10.
Ava Heiden paced the Hawkeyes’ (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) effort with 27 points and 11 rebounds. Taylor Stremlow added 17 points on an efficient 6-for-7 shooting, including three three-pointers. Chit Chat Wright tallied 14 points and seven assists. Journey Houston contributed 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting. Britt Prince led Nebraska with 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting, but committed five turnovers. Eliza Maupin scored 11 points on 5-for-7 shooting, while Amiah Hargrove scored 10.
The Huskers never seemingly recovered from Iowa’s 10-2 run to begin the game. The spurt forced Nebraska to take timeout two minutes into the game. The Huskers were never closer than six points after that, and trailed 25-13 through one quarter. After a Prince layup to start the half cut the Hawkeyes’ advantage to 25-15, Iowa went on a 6-0 run to open a 31-15 lead with 6:37 to go in the half. The Hawkeyes led by at least 13 for the rest of the half and took a 45-27 lead to halftime. Iowa opened a 51-31 lead with seven minutes to go in the third quarter before Nebraska went on a 8-0 run to shrink the deficit to 51-39 midway through the third quarter. The Huskers cut the Hawkeyes lead to 11, but Iowa went on a 13-1 run to seemingly secure the victory. The Hawkeyes took a 69-49 lead to the fourth quarter and led by 21, 80-59, before the Huskers went on an 8-0 run to finish the game.
The Huskers are next in action Thursday at 8 p.m. at Oregon. Pregame coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. on KLIN and B-107.3.