There was no stopping Iowa senior big Addison O’Grady.
She finished with a career-high 27 points, along with 10 rebounds, as the Hawkeyes fought tooth and nail to defeat Drake, 86-73, and earn a 4-0 start to the season. O’Grady’s coming out moment played out before an overwhelmingly pro-Hawkeye crowd at the visiting Knapp Center in Des Moines. In attendance were a couple of familiar faces: Des Moines native Caitlin Clark and former head coach Lisa Bluder.
O’Grady scored 16 of the team’s first 18 points as the Hawkeyes were in a back-and-forth battle with the Bulldogs, trailing 25-21 at the end of the first quarter. It was a contest between inside and outside dominance, with the Hawkeyes winning inside the paint and the Bulldogs beyond the arc. Iowa outscored Drake 46-10 on points in the paint, while Drake shot 13-for-40 from 3 compared to the Hawkeyes’ 7-for-20.
The turning point for the Hawkeyes came in the waning minutes of the second quarter. They went on a 10-0 run to lead 45-35 at the half. By this time, other players began to contribute. During the second half, the Hawkeyes held onto the lead throughout, even as Drake cut the margin from 14 to five in the third quarter. Drake senior guard Katie Dinnebier led all scorers with 40 points, including seven 3-pointers.
The Hawkeyes’ group of newcomers and returners, most of whom didn’t get much attention during the national mania of the last three years, are surprising some who expected they would immediately struggle. But the team remains an ongoing work in progress, meshing this mixture of freshness and experience. As O’Grady put it after the game:
I think we’ve been working since June, so it’s been a while. I think we’ve had a lot of time to get to know each other and played a lot of games, played some exhibition games, three, four games now. So I think now we’re really clicking and it’s really fun to see all the freshmen step up and they don’t play like freshmen at all. They play really confidently and they’re just all so good fit into the system.
Head coach Jan Jensen, returning to her alma mater for the first time as a head coach, didn’t want to put too much pressure on O’Grady to do what previous centers Megan Gustafson and Monika Czinano did against Drake. Yet after the game, she shared praise for the senior big:
I think when you look back at this series, Drake plays this five-out, I call it small ball, it’s really good. Back in our Gustafson years and Czinano years, when we have won it, we go down to the wire usually when we are here… if you could stay pretty efficient with how you score you can counter all of their small ball action. So we were hopeful that Addi was going to have a game, but I try not to put that pressure and expectation because this is the first time she’s really wearing that role, wearing the go to [role]. I was really pleased. I think the biggest compliment I could give her is that I’m starting to have Czinano and Gustafson expectations. I was kind of cranky with a couple of the things she did out there and that means that the expectations are growing, but I only know they’re growing because I know she can do it.
The Hawkeyes also benefited from other notable performances, including:
Lucy Olsen: 18 points (7-for-15), four rebounds, six assists
Hannah Steulke: 16 points (5-for-9), seven rebounds, four assists
Teagan Mallegni: 13 points (3-for-7), three rebounds.
Taylor McCabe: 9 points (3-for-3), six rebounds
Syd Affolter: one point, five rebounds, six assists
Iowa (4-0) will play on the road against Kansas (4-0) on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. ET.
