Iowa women’s basketball looks to keep the points rolling Wednesday vs. Minnesota

IOWA CITY - The Iowa Hawkeyes are on a torrid offensive pace.

Perhaps a historic offensive pace.

Never have the Hawkeyes gone through a women's basketball season averaging 80 points per game (the record is 79.5, set in 2014-15).

Through eight games, this squad is scoring at a 92.1-point clip.

'As you can see, we like to play up-tempo. We like to run,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'We like the first open shot. We shoot the ball extremely well.”

The Hawkeyes (7-1, 3-1 Big Ten) have scored at least 82 points in all eight games. They've reached the 90s five times, and have gone over 100 twice, including Sunday's 107-68 thrashing of Illinois at Champaign.

All signs point toward another robust output Wednesday, when the Hawkeyes welcome Minnesota (2-4, 1-3) for a 6 p.m. encounter at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

'We're playing at a fast rate,” Bluder said. 'It's fun. We're knocking down 3-pointers. Everybody is getting involved, and we're so hard to guard.”

The Gophers are allowing 81.0 points per game.

'We're in a really good stretch,” said Iowa's McKenna Warnock, who was named to the Big Ten's weekly 'honor roll” this week after a pair of 18-point performances last week (against Rutgers and Illinois). 'But we try to keep it minimized. We don't want to ride too high.”

Warnock made 13 of 18 shots in the last two games, including 9 of 13 from long range.

'She had a tremendous week,” Bluder said. 'She's so capable of those kind of nights. When she hits one or two, we keep looking for her.”

Warnock's surge means that Iowa has three players averaging 15 points or more.

Freshman Caitlin Clark is fourth nationally in scoring (26.4 points per game) and eighth in assists (6.5 per game). Junior post Monika Czinano adds 19.4 points per game, Warnock 15.0.

Iowa's 91.2-point clip is fourth best in the nation (behind Maryland, New Mexico and Ohio State), and its 51.2-percent field-goal accuracy ranks fifth.

Minnesota earned its first Big Ten win Sunday at Wisconsin, 88-83 in overtime. That followed four consecutive double-digit losses.

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