No. 13 Iowa refuses to back down, handing No. 6 Michigan a 62-44 upset loss on Sunday to tie the Wolverines for second in the Big Ten basketball standings with just one week left in the 2025/26 NCAA regular season.
Hawkeyes sophomore center Ava Heiden registered a game-leading 24-point, 10-rebound double-double in the win, bolstered by senior forward Hannah Stuelke's 11 points and 12 rebounds.
"Just a high-emotion game, especially for me," said Stuelke, saluting the home crowd in Iowa's senior night celebrations before tip-off. "That kind of translates into how hard we work as a team."
"She's the hometown hero," Hawkeyes head coach Jan Jensen said of Stuelke. "It's been a really fun story, watching her mature…. Choosing to stay here, becoming a high-profile player, and there's still a little wonderment in her, the joy she plays with."
Iowa now has their eyes on the prize with just two games to go before this year's Big Ten basketball tournament — starting with unranked Illinois — as top teams vie for seeding behind first-time regular-season champion No. 2 UCLA.
"What's so interesting about a league like this — I was excited and then by the time I got to locker room, I was like, 'Man Illinois is good,'" Jenson said of her team's stacked conference. "And they are."
How to watch Iowa basketball this week
No. 6 Iowa will face unranked Illinois in the Hawkeyes' penultimate regular-season game at 9 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on the Big Ten Network.
