15th-ranked Hawkeyes face a Nebraska team in desperation mode

IOWA CITY — The last time Iowa faced a desperate women’s basketball team on the road, the opponent was USC.

It went poorly.

Circumstances are similar Monday, when the 15th-ranked Hawkeyes (19-5 overall, 10-3 Big Ten) face Nebraska (16-9, 5-9).

Tipoff for the Presidents Day matinee is 11 a.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.

Iowa regained some lost momentum last Wednesday, snapping a three-game skid with a 65-56 victory over No. 24 Washington.

“We were a lot more intense on defense,” Hannah Stuelke said after the Hawkeyes yielded just 31 points in the final three quarters. “We were having a lot of fun.”

Monday, the mission is to keep Nebraska in free-fall.

The Huskers have dropped four consecutive games, all by double-digits. Their latest setback was a 91-74 defeat at Minnesota on Thursday.

And with their NCAA hopes no longer a sure thing, expect the Huskers to answer the bell Monday.

Iowa wasn’t able to match USC’s win-or-else intensity on Jan. 29.

The Hawkeyes worked out of their slump Wednesday, though, picking up their first win since Taylor McCabe’s injury.

Iowa Coach Jan Jensen inserted Taylor Stremlow into the starting lineup.

“I was trying to free up pressure on Addie (Deal),” Jensen said. “What was going to give us that first punch off the bat? It’s not easy to balance the minutes.”

Chit-Chat Wright is coming off a 21-point performance. She scored 24 in the previous meeting with Nebraska, an 86-76 Iowa win on Jan. 1.

“I talked to her Monday,” Jensen said. “I told her that she needed to sacrifice the pass-first mentality. She had to increase her (shooting) volume, increase that rate.

“She looked at me with those eyes and said, ‘I got you, Coach.’”

With five regular-season games remaining, Iowa is a 3-seed in Charlie Creme’s latest NCAA tournament “bracketology.”

Nebraska is a 9-seed and in danger of slipping onto the tournament bubble.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com