NORMAN -- Sixth-seeded Iowa opened up its 2025 NCAA Tournament with a blowout victory over 11-seed Murray State on Saturday, throttling the Racers by a final score of 92-57. The 92 points scored were the most since the Hawkeyes put forth the same effort in their 92-86 win over Northern Iowa in December.
With five Hawkeyes scoring in double figures, each player scoring at least one bucket and setting a program NCAA Tournament game record with 28 assists, it was a total team victory, and a total team output offensively.
Senior point guard Lucy Olsen did her part on that side of the ball, scoring 12 points and adding a career-high 12 assists for the double-double
"It's easy when you just pass the ball and they hit the shot," Olsen laughed after the victory. "You can't get assists without your teammates playing really well. I think we all just clicked. We all just locked in together. We played for each other instead of playing for ourselves. That makes the game flow a little nicer."
In the first half, things were much tighter than the final score indicates. Thanks to two fouls on Hannah Stuelke in the first two minutes, the game was a little closer than the Hawkeyes would have liked for much of the first 20 minutes.
Due to those early fouls on Iowa's starting five, freshman Ava Heiden was called upon much earlier than head coach Jan Jensen had initially planned.
"I was kind of panicked," Jensen said. "I was like, 'Oh, geez, this is not a [good] start.'"
But Ava Heiden held her own -- and did so much more than that.
In the first half, Heiden put up her single-game career high of 13 points, and she finished with a team-leading 15 while adding seven boards by the end of the game. This was Heiden's third-straight game scoring in double-figures, and prior to the last month, Heiden had been held to single digits for the entirety of the season.
"I think that over the past few months I've been put in a lot of extra work," Heiden said. "That has helped me get to the confidence level and skill level to be able to come into games like this and perform well."
"I think she's just gotten more confidence in the working and extra hours," Jensen added of her freshman center. "She's been in with Randi (Henderson) and working on the ways we need to score and how we need to score and how we need to defend."
The aforementioned work for Heiden on the defensive side of the ball showed too. Her presence around the rim made things difficult for Murray State leading scorer (22.2 ppg) Katelyn Young. Young eventually left the game due to injury, but was held to six points in 19 minutes.
"When we have Ava come in, Ava can be pretty crafty and speedy, too," Jensen said. "She's got length. That length bothered [Young]. So, sometimes there's relief, 'Oh, we got [Hannah] in foul trouble.' If Ava can hold coming in there, then it's not really a relief, right? Because she was able to make it hard on you."
Heiden wasn't the only freshman to come off the bench and have a significant impact on the game, either. Reserve guard Taylor Stremlow was another one of the scorers to reach double-figures, adding 10 points and four rebounds. Six of her ten points came from behind the three-point line.
"I would say it helped that they were lining me first -- which is staying off on defense," Stremlow said. "So I was like, 'Okay, that's okay. I'll shoot it.' I knocked some down. That was a good confidence booster. I think we just played really well off each other and I got some open looks. So, that definitely helped me score more."
To have the two true freshmen contribute as much as they did on offense was a huge boost for the Hawkeyes, who could use the added depth going forward in the tournament.
"I'm so proud of them," Olsen said. "They work so hard everyday in practice. Seeing them get to shine out there is super nice as a senior, to know how hard freshman year is."
Along with the effort from Olsen and the freshmen, Stuelke and Sydney Affolter each added 11 points.
Knowing the Hawkeyes will get consistent effort and production from its upper classmen, the performance by Stremlow and Heiden is massive. It could be key in propelling Iowa through a March Madness run, and keeping the program moving in the right direction in the future.
"Them building their confidence is really good," Stuelke said. "They know they can come in and sub for us and be just as good as we are."
"Hopefully, it's a confidence builder," Jensen added. "I thought if Ava could hold serve and then we could get Addi (O'Grady) in with some minutes, that we could really gain some confidence for Monday night, but also next year for Ava."
READ MORE: Iowa 92, Murray State 57: Shutdown Saturday
