All great things come to an end at some point and unfortunately for the Iowa women’s basketball team, tonight was the end of their five-game winning streak vs Iowa State. The Cyclones defeated the Hawkeyes 77-70 in front of an electric Hilton Coliseum crowd.

“It’s always hard when a streak comes to an end. Winning five in a row, it felt good coming in here…Going out of here knowing that we’ve learned and grown from playing in front of a really good environment,” said Lisa Bluder.

The game was hyped up by all of the local reporters and even ESPN wrote a feature story on the matchup of Ashley Joens and Caitlin Clark. Depending on who you ask, the game lived up to its billing.

Iowa State held a 19-17 lead after the first quarter, and it came from grabbing offensive rebounds and converting second chance opportunities, especially Ashley Joens, who had six first quarter rebounds and seven points. The Cyclones started to build on their lead in the second quarter with a 15-5 run, which was capped off by an Aubrey Joens 3pt make to get the Hilton crowd on their feet. The Hawkeyes battled back in the final minutes of the first half going on a 9-2 run of their own to make it 36-31 at the break.

“I was really proud of our team; we were down 12 in the second quarter, and we battled back to 5 taking it into halftime. I thought that was tremendous,” said Lisa Bluder on the way her team ended the half.

The story of the first half was the second chance points, as well as ISU commanding a 7-0 lead in fast break points, but the Hawkeyes came out strong in the second half and things got started with Monika Czinano, who had the first three baskets coming out of the break.

Czinano spoke about her quick start saying, “I definitely think there were a lot of opening looks coming out in the third quarter. I don’t think they were expecting it. (My) teammates did a really good job of firing it in and I was able to convert.”

Iowa went on a 14-7 run to open the second half and they took the lead for the first time since the 1:09 mark in the first quarter. The teams traded baskets for a couple of minutes, but a steal and score from Emily Ryan, as well as 3pt make from Aubrey Joens got the Cyclones back up 57-51 late in the third quarter

Caitlin Clark was able to hit a big 3pt shot of her own at the end of the third quarter to cut the Cyclone lead to three points. She would finish the game with 26 points, but was just 10/26 from the floor and had just three assists.

Into the final quarter, the Hawkeyes kept battling, but Lexi Donarski proved to be big early in the final frame, as she hit her two 3pt shots of the game in a two-minute span to help ISU turn a two-point lead into a seven-point lead.

The whole game the Cyclones had the lead and were able to play the role of aggressor and extend their lead at times. They led in total for just over 30 minutes of the game and in the end were able to hold on for a seven-point victory.

Ashley and Aubrey Joens combined for 38 points, with Aubrey making four of the teams nine 3pt shots. For the Hawkeyes, Clark had 26, while McKenna Warnock (11) and Monika Czinano (13) scored in double digits.

Iowa State did a really good job of slowing down Iowa in transition, as the Hawkeyes were held to just two fast breaks points, which is an area that they normally flourish.

“When they make shots, that slows up our transition. And free throws, they don’t have anyone on the free throw line, so when they are shooting more free throws than us, they are waiting back there, and they are set in their defense. That makes it pretty challenging to have any transition offense,” said Caitlin Clark on what contributed to slowing the Hawkeyes attack.

When browsing over the box score, Iowa led in FG%, 3pt%, FT%, assists and blocked shots, but the two stats that stand out are points off turnovers and free throws shot. Iowa State outscored the Hawkeyes 18-9 off of turnovers and shot more free throws (22-6) than Iowa. In a physical rivalry game like this one, Lisa Bluder felt like the free throw discrepancy was up for debate.

“When you don’t shoot free throws, it’s hard to win a game…I felt like we should have been shooting a lot more. That’s my opinion on it,” said Bluder. “I think we drew a lot of fouls that weren’t called…They have 15 fouls to give with three post (players) and they were willing to use them, but you have to call them to use them.”

In the end, this game does not define a season and the Hawkeyes are looking forward to learning from this game and to continue building towards Big Ten play.

“One game doesn’t define a season. It’s a road game in a great environment against a really good basketball team. We are going to learn a lot from that…Going forward we’ll have to get ready for Big Ten and this will help prepare us for that,” said Bluder.

The Hawkeyes have another big break, as their next game comes against Central Florida on December 18th at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game will be broadcast on BTN+.