“We came in and here and we took care of business. That’s what we wanted to do.”

Lisa Bluder’s squad kept things rolling, as they had a very business-like takedown of the Fighting Illini, winning by a final score of 82-56. The Hawkeyes have now won five straight games and find themselves in third place in the Big Ten.

Iowa took control from the opening tip and opened up a 19-3 lead behind 10 points from Monika Czinano. She would finish the game with a team high 21 points and six rebounds.

“I think we came out gunning. We knew what we were going to have to do. We came out strong and that’s something we’ve been focusing on and trying to do,” said Czinano.

The Illini were able to close the Iowa lead down to 32-19 late in the first half, but a Tomi Taiwo driving layup, following by a nifty steal on the inbounds pass for an easy layup helped spark a 9-0 run to end the half. Taiwo finished the game with a career high 14 points off the bench, while Kylie Feuerbach added 10 points of her own.

“If you look at some of our losses or games that have been closer, the bench didn’t really produce like we could have,” said the senior Taiwo. “It’s always important to come off and have a good spark of energy in any way that you can, whether its scoring, rebounding, getting steals…”

The Iowa defense was pivotal in helping the team get the lead early and make sure the game was never in doubt. Illinois was 2/10 from the floor in the first quarter and shot just 25% over the first three quarters. The Hawkeyes were able to force 16 turnovers and turn it into 20 points, while holding the Illini to just six second chance points.

“That’s amazing defense from everybody, one through five. I was really proud of us, I thought throughout the game we played pretty good defense,” said Czinano. “I think we’ve done a really good job of moving on game-to-game. We could have easily let our high from Minnesota leak into this and come into this one a little bit slower”

Despite having her triple-double streak broken at two in a row, Caitlin Clark contributed 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. McKenna Warnock only had six points, but was able to tied for the team high in defensive rebounds with seven.

The Hawkeyes now have just a day to prep before they travel to Penn State and Lisa Bluder says that while the situation is not ideal, it has to be done to ensure that all of the postponed games are played.

“We are going to Penn State on a one day prep, that’s not ideal, but if we want to get the game in, we are going to have to do some of those type of things…It’s not going to be the ideal situation ever when we make up games.”

The game is on Tuesday at 5:00pm and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.