Iowa women’s basketball routs Illinois 82-56 for 5th straight win

IOWA CITY — Somewhere in the last week or so, the Iowa Hawkeyes have developed a merciless mentality.

Two straight games, no messing around.

Fresh off a record-setting rout at Minnesota, the 25th-ranked Hawkeyes followed with another Big Ten women’s basketball blowout — 82-56 over Illinois — in front of a crowd of 8,977 Sunday evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“We came here and took care of business,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “That’s what we wanted to do.”

Iowa (12-4 overall, 6-1 Big Ten) won its fifth straight contest, and did it convincingly. Monika Czinano scored 10 of her game-high 21 points in a 15-2 run to open the game, and the Hawkeyes never let the Fighting Illini (6-11, 1-5) up for air.

“Our key is getting stops,” Iowa’s Caitlin Clark said. “Our transition is our best offense. I think our transition offense is the best in the country.”

The Hawkeyes also assembled a 12-2 run to close the first half and a 17-3 blitz early in the third quarter. They led by as many as 39 points, then coasted home.

The rout came on the heels of a 105-49 stomping at Minnesota, three days earlier.

“We could have let that high from Minnesota come into this game, but we wiped if off,” Czinano said.

Tomi Taiwo (14 points, a career high) and Kylie Feuerbach (10 points) gave the Hawkeyes a big lift off the bench.

Taiwo’s signature sequence came late in the second quarter. She scored on a drive to the basket, stole the inbounds pass and scored again.

Four points in four seconds.

“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Taiwo said. “Our offense was kind of stagnant at that time, and I thought I could get to the basket.

“Then on the inbounds, (they) weren’t looking.”

Taiwo, whose previous career-high was 13 points last year at Ohio State, made her first six shots and finished 6-of-7.

Feuerbach was in the game early and played 22 productive minutes, hitting 4 of 8 shots.

It was 41-19 at halftime. Between the second half against Minnesota and the first half against Illinois, the Hawkeyes outscored those two overmatched foes by a 99-34 count in 40 minutes.

Clark tallied eight rebounds and seven assists to go with her 18 points. Kate Martin added eight points, McKenna Warnock tallied six.

The key figure, according to Bluder was “less than 30,” as in the fact that all of the starters played less than 30 minutes.

“That was important,” she said. “With the games we have coming up, it’s a lot. We really wanted to manage minutes today.”

Jayla Olden paced Illinois with 16 points.

The Hawkeyes have two road games coming up this week — at Penn State at 5 p.m. Tuesday, at Northwestern on Friday — then return home to face Ohio State on Jan. 31.

Iowa is a half-game behind Indiana (14-2, 6-0) and Michigan (16-2, 7-1) in the Big Ten race.

Iowa 82, Illinois 56

At Iowa City

ILLINOIS (56): Kendall Bostic 3-6 0-0 6, Geovana Lopes 1-1 0-0 2, De’Myla Brown 0-7 0-0 0, Jada Peebles 1-4 0-0 3, Aaliyah Nye 2-10 0-0 5, Sara Anastasieska 2-8 3-4 8, Eva Rubin 1-1 1-2 3, Adalia McKenzie 2-10 3-6 7, Jayla Oden 6-10 2-4 16, Solape Amusan 2-4 0-0 6. Totals 20-61 9-16 56.

IOWA (82): McKenna Warnock 2-5 2-4 6, Monika Czinano 9-15 3-3 21, Kate Martin 4-6 0-0 8, Caitlin Clark 8-17 0-1 18, Gabbie Marshall 1-6 0-0 3, Kylie Feuerbach 4-8 0-0 10, Addison O’Grady 0-1 0-0 0, Tomi Taiwo 6-7 0-0 14, Sydney Affolter 0-3 0-0 0, A.J. Ediger 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 35-73 5-8 82.

Illinois 5 14 12 25 — 56

Iowa 19 22 26 15 — 82

3-point goals: Illinois 7-21 (Brown 0-2, Peebles 1-2, Nye 1-7, Anastasieska 1-3, McKenzie 0-1, Oden 2-2, Amusan 2-4), Iowa 7-22 (Warnock 0-2, Martin 0-1, Clark 2-5, Marshall 1-5, Feuerbach 2-5, Taiwo 2-3, Ediger 0-1). Team fouls: Illinois 19, Iowa 14. Fouled out: none. Rebounds: Illinois 38 (Bostic 12), Iowa 45 (Clark 8). Assists: Illinois 11 (Nye, McKenzie 3), Iowa 22 (Clark 7). Steals: Illinois 7 (Bostic 2), Iowa 8 (Marshall 3). Turnovers: Illinois 16, Iowa 13.

Attendance: 8,977.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com