A couple of wins last week helped the Iowa Hawkeyes women move up to No. 23 in the rankings.
“It’s amazing what winning can do, isn’t it?” coach Lisa Bluder said, referring not to the move up in the rankings from 25th last week, but also to being able to give bench players more playing time in the past couple of games.
The team, coming off a game in which they more than doubled up Minnesota 105-49 on Thursday, Jan. 20, never gave up the lead against Illinois (6-11 overall, 1-5 in the Big Ten), winning 82-56 Sunday.
Monika Czinano led Iowa (12-4, 6-1) with 21 points. She opened the scoring, giving the Hawkeyes a 2-0 lead, and they never looked back. Bluder said it has been nice to Czinano get some rest in recent games.
Czinano was one of eight players to score for the Hawkeyes. Caitlin Clark, who was just behind Czinano with 18 points, had a hot hand to open the third quarter putting in 8 points in the first two minutes after the halftime break.
Jayla Oden had a career high 16 points off the bench for the Fighting Illini. She was that team’s only player to score in double figures.
Iowa, third in the Big Ten standings, took their game on the road to beat the Penn State Nittany Lions 107-79 Tuesday.
Next up is a road game at Northwestern on Friday, Jan. 28.
