Iowa returned home after Sunday's high-profile win over Virginia Tech to face a Toledo team that had won the last three MAC regular season championships -- and wasted no time in storming past the Rockets. After Toledo took an 8-5 lead just over two minutes into the game, Iowa went on a 23-2 run to finish the first quarter.

The Hawkeyes didn't look back after that, either. Iowa outscored Toledo 21-11 in the second quarter to open up a 49-21 lead and largely kept the hammer down after halftime, eventually pushing the lead to 40 points before settling for a 94-57 victory to improve to 3-0 on the season.

1. That stifling Hawkeye... defense? One of the most interesting storylines for this Iowa team is the effort -- and performance -- it's been putting in on the defensive end. For the second game in a row, Iowa held an opponent under 60 points and no regular season opponent has topped 73 points yet.

Obviously, three games is not much of a sample size, and the competition will only get bigger, stronger, and more offensively potent as the season continues, especially as Big Ten play unfolds. But the effort and intensity that Iowa has been displaying on the defensive end is something that can be replicated, regardless of the opponent.

Iowa's defensive intensity was the first thing that head coach Jan Jensen remarked on after the game as well.

"Our defensive intensity was there most of the game," Jensen said. "We started out, we held them to about 21 points in the first half, I thought that was good."

Defense is what enabled Iowa to turn this game into a rout early on. After scoring eight points in the game's first two minutes, Toledo had just two points in the next eight minutes. The Rockets shot 3-of-19 for the quarter (2-of-11 from 3-point range) and had five turnovers.

During Iowa's 23-2 run to take over the game, Toledo shot 1-for-16 from the floor, with three blocked shots and three turnovers. The second quarter didn't improve matters much for the Rockets -- they shot 4-of-12 from the floor and had an additional six turnovers.

In the second half, Toledo shot a bit better -- the Rockets made 14-of-36 attempts after the break -- and took better care of the ball, only turning the ball over five times. Iowa still managed to hold the Rockets under 40% shooting in the second half -- and the damage the Hawkeye defense had wrought in the first half wasn't going to be undone by a marginally-improved Toledo offense in the final two quarters.

For the game, Iowa forced 16 turnovers and turned those into 20 points. The Hawkeyes also had six blocks and six steals each, led by a pair of blocks for Addie O'Grady and two steals apiece for Sydney Affolter and Kylie Feuerbach.

2. A balanced offensive attack. Over the previous four seasons, the Iowa offense was understandably a very heliocentric attack -- it began, ended, and revolved around Caitlin Clark. And that made sense: when you have a supernova like Clark, the greatest scorer that college basketball has ever seen, you get her the ball and let her cook.

In the post-Clark era, the Hawkeyes are still flying up and down the court and lighting up scoreboards (Wednesday's game was the second time Iowa has eclipsed 90 points this season), but they're doing it with a much more balanced attack. This game was the second time in three games that Iowa has had at least five players finish in double figures in scoring. In the lower-scoring Virginia Tech game, Iowa didn't have that same volume of double-figure scorers -- but the Hawkeyes' top three scorers did all finish between 16-20 points per game.

Senior guard Lucy Olsen, who had led Iowa in scoring in the previous two regular season games, took note of Iowa's offensive balance in her post-game comments.

"There were so many people in double figures scoring, that's going to be hard to guard," said Olsen. "I'm really happy with how we shared the ball and got each other open."

On Wednesday, Hannah Stuelke led the way for Iowa with 17 points in 22 minutes of action. Stuelke's scoring reflected Iowa's dominance in the paint (Iowa outscored Toledo 52-20 in the paint) and at the free throw line (where the Hawkeyes went 28-of-32, compared to Toledo's 7-of-10 effort at the stripe).

Stuelke was 4-of-6 from the floor, but the most eyebrow-raising element of her scoring was the 9-for-9 effort at the free throw line. Free throw shooting was Stuelke's Achilles' heel in her first two seasons in Iowa City; if she's truly turning the corner there, she'll become an even more potent option in Iowa's offense.

Taylor McCabe and Lucy Olsen backed Stuelke up with 14 points apiece, with each player using different means to score those 14 points. Olsen went 6-of-9 from the floor and used her mid-range game and ability to attack the basket to get easy buckets, while McCabe lit up Toledo from deep, going 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Her early hot shooting was one of the factors that enabled Iowa to build its big first half lead.

Remarkably, McCabe's four made triples were the only successful three-pointers for Iowa. Non-McCabe players were 0-for-6 from deep in the game; despite converting just four three-pointers, Iowa still managed to score 94 points with ease.

Sydney Affolter and Addison O'Grady rounded out Iowa's double-figure scorers, with 11 and 10 points apiece. O'Grady couldn't match her perfect 9-for-9 shooting effort against Virginia Tech, but she still went 3-of-5 on the floor -- and also showed off some sharp passing, which resulted in three assists.

Affolter made her first start of the season for Iowa and stuffed the stat sheet in a way that ought to be familiar to Iowa fans who watched her during Iowa's Big Ten and NCAA Tournament runs last March. In addition to her 11 points (on 4-of-5 shooting), Affolter had five rebounds, four assists (tied with Olsen for a team-high), two steals, and a block. Her ability to do a little bit of everything -- and do it very well -- is what makes her so invaluable to this Iowa team and Wednesday's game showed her looking more and more like herself.

Iowa was also able to show off its depth in this game -- 11 players saw the floor for at least seven minutes and only two -- Olsen (30) and Feuerbach (27) -- played more than 22 minutes in the game. Nine Iowa players had at least five points in the win as well. That balanced depth wasn't lost on Jensen, either.

"I like the fact we can play everybody. I saw some pretty good things from some of our freshmen," said Jensen. "I saw a lot of effort. I think if you have effort early, even if you're not looking as sharp, that effort's going to come around later."

3. Freshman watch. It wasn't the most spectacular game for any of Iowa's heralded freshmen, but with the Hawkeyes going so deep into the bench, the freshmen did get a fair amount of run in the blowout victory. Taylor Stremlow played the most minutes of the freshman crew (16) and finished with four points, two rebounds, and two assists. While her stat line was quiet, her effort earned praise from Jensen after the win.

"I love Taylor Stremlow's heart," said Jensen. "She was hustling with like 30 seconds left [in the game] on a dive for a loose ball."

The splashiest -- or at least the most eventful -- night belonged to Teagan Mallegni, who played 14 minutes and finished with six points, three rebounds, three assists, and a block -- as well as three turnovers and five fouls. She packed a lot into her time on the court, with Jensen praising that do-everything aspect of her game in particular.

"I love [her] versatility," Jensen said. "She didn't hit [many shots] yet tonight, but when she gets on a roll, she's pretty special."

Freshman post Ava Heiden played the fewest minutes (11), but had six points and three rebounds. The key to unlocking more production from Heiden will be her on-court chemistry with her teammates, as Jensen noted.

"When Ava Heiden really starts to click, you can see it," said Jensen. "We just haven't done a good job of hitting her when she needs to be it. That's a lot for a young post, you've gotta hit 'em when they need to be hit and they'll get that confidence to make an easy finish."

NEXT: Iowa (3-0) visits Drake (2-1) on Sunday, November 17 at 2 PM CT. ESPN+ will televise the game.