Short-handed Iowa holds off Purdue without Hannah Stuelke, 83-74

Note: This report was written in Iowa.

For the second time in five days, Taylor Stremlow reset her scoring career high.

Thursday night, she did it halfway through the second quarter.

Stremlow finished with 19 points — all in the first half — to help lead the shorthanded, 13th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes past Purdue, 83-74, in a Big Ten women’s basketball game at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.

Iowa (21-5 overall, 12-3 Big Ten) won its third straight game and moved into sole possession of third place with three games to play.

The Hawkeyes also moved in front of Purdue in their all-time series, 41-40, and topped the Boilermakers (12-14, 4-11) for the 10th straight time.

Iowa announced earlier Thursday that senior forward Hannah Stuelke would miss the game due to “an upper-body injury.”

A senior and a native of Cedar Rapids, Stuelke is the Big Ten leader in rebounds, at 8.8 per game. She is second on the team in scoring at 13.8 points per game.

Her absence opened the door for the first start for freshman Journey Houston, and the Davenport native capitalized.

Houston matched a career-high with 16 points. She made her first shot, part of a 6-for-6 start for the Hawkeyes, who jumped to a 15-6 lead.

“Surprisingly, I wasn’t very nervous,” she told the Iowa Radio Network.

It was 19-14 before Iowa applied the hammer, a 20-1 run that gave the Hawkeyes plenty of separation at 39-15.

Ava Heiden led all scorers with 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting and grabbed 13 rebounds.

A sophomore from Verona, Wis., Stremlow entered the week with a career scoring record of 16 points. She scored 17 in Iowa’s win at Nebraska on Monday, then topped that Thursday.

She was 7-of-8 from the field in the first half, 5-of-5 from long distance.

Kiki Smith paced Purdue with 17 points.

The Hawkeyes return home for “Senior Sunday” against No. 6 Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Tipoff is 11 a.m.

Iowa announced that Stuelke’s absence Thursday was “day-to-day,” and that they were hoping she would be back Sunday.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com