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Freshmen are a focal point in Iowa’s first-round stroll over Murray State
Ava Heiden (15 points), Taylor Stremlow (10) and Aaliyah Guyton (four) are part of the Hawkeyes’ 41 bench points, and Solon native Callie Levin registers her first basket as a Hawkeye
Mar. 22, 2025 3:47 pm, Updated: Mar. 23, 2025 2:57 pm
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NORMAN, Okla. — Jan Jensen sat at the dais in a cramped media room in the depths of Lloyd Noble Center.
To her immediate left was Ava Heiden. To her far left was Taylor Stremlow.
“The future,” she called them.
Saturday, they were an integral part of the present.
Iowa got 41 points from its bench, including 31 from its four available freshmen, in a 92-57 NCAA first-round women’s basketball rout of Murray State at Lloyd Noble Center.
“They were outstanding,” Lucy Olsen said. “They stepped up to the challenge.”
Stremlow said, “Our mindset all season has been to be ready when our name is called. Everybody that came off the bench gave good minutes.”
Heiden continued her sharp late-season ascent, rescuing the Hawkeyes (23-10) inside after Hannah Stuelke’s early foul trouble.
The 6-foot-4 Oregonian scored 13 first-half points and finished with 15 on 7-of-11 shooting.
“She’s like a baby deer,” Jensen said. “She’s growing up.”
Heiden was projected to be a major contributor for the Hawkeyes as a rookie. But before the Big Ten tournament, she had been third on the post depth chart.
“A lot goes into it,” Jensen said. “It’s not just game day. Addi (O’Grady) was coming off of a great summer.
“Both of those kids have been great, and they’ve both stuck with it. There’s such a good lesson there.”
Heiden said, “Everyone on this team is for each other.”
Before the Big Ten tournament, Heiden saw the floor about 7.5 minutes per game, including six DNPs.
In the last four games (Big Ten and NCAA tournaments), she has played 49 productive minutes — 42 points on 18-of-25 shooting (72 percent).
Stremlow added 10 points Saturday, Aaliyah Guyton four.
And Callie Levin punctuated the win with the first basket of her collegiate career, with 32 seconds left.
“Hopefully it’s the first of many,” she said.
Levin earned the title of Miss Iowa Basketball 2024 after leading Solon to the Class 3A state championship. Her impact so far at Iowa has been minimal.
Or has it?
“You can make an impact a lot of different ways,” she said. “My impact this season has been using my voice, cheering my teammates, getting extra reps.”
Some of those extra reps have come by playing point guard for the “Blue Squad.” Her choice.
“Guarding Lucy (Olsen), Kylie (Feuerbach) and Sydney (Affolter) every day, it makes you a lot better,” Levin said.
It wasn’t as if Levin was hunting shots in her 5 minutes of duty Saturday. She located A.J. Ediger for a basket, then Jada Gyamfi for another before taking it herself for a reverse layup at the end.
Stremlow and Guyton have been the most consistently productive of Iowa’s five freshmen (a fifth, Teagan Mallegni stayed back in Iowa City this weekend due to concussion protocol).
The rotation on Stremlow’s outside shot is unorthodox, with either sidespin or no spin at all.
“I usually don’t have much backspin on it,” she said. “I think it’s something about where my thumbs are on the ball ... I really couldn’t tell you.”
Nonetheless, she made 4 of 6 shots Saturday, including half of her four 3-point tries.
Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com
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