Takeaways as Iowa women’s basketball drops lopsided game vs. UCLA

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….

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Publish date : 2026-02-02 15:05:00

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