Defense is no longer a detriment of Iowa women’s basketball

Iowa City – For the Iowa women’s basketball program, defense is no longer just something to do between fast incursions at the opposite end of the soil.

Defense is no longer a detriment. In fact, it has become something in which the Hawkeyes have become – panting up – quite good.

It is a force, even.

Four years after the last – last – last – in the country to mark the defense (80.3 points per authorized match), the Hawkeyes greatly buttoned it.

“Defense has become a business card for us,” said coach Jan Jensen.

Directed by Stoppers Life Kylie Feuerbach and Sydney Affolter, the Hawkeyes (18-7 in total, 8-6 Big Ten) decreased the score rate of their opponents to 65.0 points per game, their best rate in addition to one decade.

Enemy teams draw 39.1% against Hawkeyes, a rate that ranks in the first third at the national level.

It has been even better lately.

In the victories in six current Hawkeyes games, they grant 63.2 points per competition. On Thursday evening, Iowa beat Rutgers, 55-43, a count that would have looked like a half-time score in recent seasons.

“A victory is a victory, but it was an ugly victory,” said Affolic. “We have kept them at 40 years. It’s pretty good.

It’s really good.

Now the trick is to find a way to stay hot by cooling a pair of teams among the best 10.

The first is No. 9 of Ohio State (21-3, 10-3). Tipoff is at 11 a.m. (CT) on Monday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.

“We have done a lot of work. We arrived at the point … We do not enter these two games with a lot of pressure, “said Jensen.

“Maybe we can steal one. It’s going to be difficult, but that’s what’s fun at this time of the year. It will not be easy. If we collect our shot, we are ferocious and intrepid … We have an excellent opportunity. »»

After the trip to Columbus, the Hawkeyes welcome the number 1 UCLA next Sunday.

An improved defense will not be sufficient to keep the Hawkeyes competitive. They will need more pistons to shoot offensively than Lucy Olsen.

Against Rutgers, Olsen struck 11 from the 19 shots on the ground. The rest of the crew was 9 out of 35.

“I don’t remember more than three shots that we fired that I didn’t like it,” said Jensen.

A transfer from Villanova, Olsen is 95 points from the 2,000 -point mark for his career

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