Hawkeye women’s Big Ten tourney trail ends with 60-59 loss to No. 13 Ohio State

INDIANAPOLIS — The Iowa women’s basketball team lost 60-59 to No. 13 Ohio State Friday night in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

It was Iowa’s fifth loss by one score, six if you count its 86-78 overtime defeat at Ohio State last month.

After winning two of three games here, the Hawkeyes (22-10) will head home to refresh, refocus, and await the NCAA tournament selections on March 16. The No. 13-ranked Buckeyes (24-5) advanced to play No. 4 UCLA here in a Saturday semifinal.

Cotie McMahon made two free throws for Ohio State with 6.7 seconds left for the game’s final points. Hannah Stuelke of Iowa was called for a blocking foul that much of the Hawkeye camp wasn’t buying.

“I didn’t want to foul there, obviously,” Stuelke said, “but I did. (McMahon) made both free throws, kudos to her.”

After an Iowa timeout, Sydney Affolter’s contact-filled drive to the basket for Iowa missed, and was tipped out of bounds by the Buckeyes with 0.7 seconds remaining. No foul was called.

“They called a foul on Hannah, they could have called that one (on Affolter’s drive),” Affolter said.

The Hawkeyes got a good look at a game-winning shot when Lucy Olsen’s inbounds found Stuelke for an open 12-foot jumper, but the shot hit the rim and bounced away.

“I thought we had a great look at the end,” said Stuelke.

“We got two pretty decent looks,” Affolter said. “That’s all we can ask for.”

It was a game with eight lead-changes and nine ties, a contest in which both defenses got the better of the opponent’s offense.

Iowa star guard Lucy Olsen had 12 points at halftime, but was held to two after that as the Buckeyes focused on her. She made 6 of 18 shots. Her team shot 39 percent and missed a lot of layups. Ohio State, though, made just 36.5 percent of its attempts.

“I thought our defensive schemes were always in the moment,” Iowa Coach Jan Jensen said.

Ohio State pulled out to a 14-5 lead in a turnover-plagued first quarter for both teams. Iowa made just 3 of 17 shots in the quarter, with all the baskets by Olsen, and trailed 14-9 at the period’s end.

An Olsen 3-pointer tied the game at 18, then the Buckeyes scored the next six points. Backup freshman center Ava Heiden entered the game with 2:34 left in the first half and scored the game’s next five points to tie the game at 26 before OSU took at 29-28 lead to halftime.

Neither team led by more than four points in the third quarter, and the Buckeyes’ 57-51 fourth-quarter lead was erased by a 9-1 Iowa run capped by an Affolter 3-pointer with 1:16 left for the 59-58 lead. The final points came on McMahon’s fateful foul shots.

McMahon had a game-high 18 points for the Buckeyes. Affolter, Olsen and Stuelke had 14 points apiece for Iowa.

The Hawkeyes’ 11-game winning streak in this tourney, covering three straight titles, was halted.

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