Iowa vs. Drake women’s basketball glance: Time, TV, game notes (Nov. 17, 2024)

What: Iowa (3-0) at Drake (2-1), women’s basketball

When/where: 2 p.m. Sunday, Knapp Center, Des Moines

TV: ESPN+

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network affiliates

Iowa’s next game: Wednesday vs. Kansas, 6 p.m., at Sioux Falls, S.D.

What to know: Jan Jensen returns to Drake for the first time as Iowa’s head coach (she went there 12 times as an assistant under Lisa Bluder). Jensen scored 1,996 career points for the Bulldogs, and was the nation’s leading scorer (29.6 ppg) as a senior in 1991.

Iowa has won 20 of the last 21 in the series, but each of the last five encounters in Des Moines have been decided by single digits, including the Hawkeyes’ 92-85 overtime win in 2022.

Both teams are scoring in the mid-80s this season, so expect another high-scoring battle.

This marks the first of seven head-to-head games among the state’s four Division-I programs. The Hawkeyes swept the state in 2022-23 and 2023-24; their last “Big Four” loss came against Iowa State on Dec. 8, 2021.

Iowa won its first three games handily, including a 94-57 rout of Toledo on Wednesday.

Outside shooting has been a detriment for the Hawkeyes so far. Other than Taylor McCabe (8 of 17), the Hawkeyes are shooting 20.5 percent from 3-point range.

McCabe’s younger sister, Peyton, is on the Drake roster. She is a freshman and has not yet scored.

Lucy Olsen, the transfer from Villanova, leads the Hawkeyes at 17.7 points per game. Anna Miller, a 6-foot-3 senior post, paces Drake at 21.3 points and 12.0 rebounds per game.

Drake won its first two games before suffering an 80-72 defeat at Creighton on Monday.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com