An unusual start time (an 11 AM CT tip-off on a Monday afternoon) and the most difficult road test of the season (at #8 Ohio State) were steep obstacles -- but Iowa nearly overcame them thanks to a furious comeback in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. While the Hawkeyes did manage to send the game to overtime, Ohio State was able to regroup and hold off Iowa's upset bid, prevailing 86-78 after the extra session.

The loss ended Iowa's six-game Big Ten winning streak and dropped the Hawkeyes to 18-8 overall and 8-7 in Big Ten play. Ohio State improved to 22-3 overall and 11-3 in league action after defeating Iowa in Columbus in overtime for the second consecutive season. The Deep Three unpacks the key takeways from the game.

Iowa's six-game winning streak was built in part off strong starts; the Hawkeyes out-scored opponents 108-74 in the first quarter during that winning streak, highlighted by dominant 18-4 and 18-7 first quarters against USC and Minnesota, respectively. The tables were turned on Monday, as Ohio State got the fast start and led 22-12 after 10 minutes of play.

The offensive situation actually got worse for Iowa in the second quarter -- the Hawkeyes scored just nine points then after only putting 12 on the board in the first quarter -- but the overall damage was minimal as the Buckeyes scored just 12 points themselves in the second quarter. That 9-point second quarter, in which Iowa shot 23% from the field (3-of-13, including 0-of-4 from long range) and 50% from the free throw line (3-of-6), left Iowa in a 34-21 hole at the break.

Part of the problem for Iowa in the first half? Ohio State's press defense, which was able to force nine Iowa turnovers (leading to seven OSU points), but also had the knock-on effect of spooking Iowa into slowing things down on offense -- to the Hawkeyes' detriment.

"[After] talking about their press for the last week, [I thought] we were able to break it with ease, we would come down the floor and we'd still have 24-25 seconds on the shot clock," Iowa assistant coach Raina Harmon said after the game. "We let their aggressive mindset interfere with what we do in our scoring -- we weren't cutting hard, we weren't necessarily driving. We [were able to] kind of reset at halftime, [and then] we could come out and be more aggressive."

"Their press, the residual [effects] of it, sort of slowed our offense down," agreed Iowa forward Sydney Affolter. "I thought we should have attacked a lot earlier. They played great defense, but I think we figured it out in the second half."

"Just being aggressive. Not letting them slow us down," Affolter said about what Iowa discussed at halftime. "Just because we beat the press doesn't mean we have to reverse the ball all the way around. When we have fast breaks -- that's our best offense. Any team that takes that way, we definitely struggle. Keeping our transition [going] no matter what is important."

Indeed, Iowa went from zero fast break points in the first half to five fast break points in the second half, but the offensive eruption -- Iowa had 23 points in the third quarter and 30 in the fourth quarter -- was about more than just fast break buckets. Iowa was more decisive on offense and did a better job of moving and cutting on offense and attacking the rim.

One Hawkeye who definitely seemed transformed during the second half was star guard Lucy Olsen, who had seven points on 3-of-9 shooting in the first half, to go along with a rebound and an assist. In the second half, she exploded for 16 points on 4-of-8 shooting, though she was also incredibly effective as a distributor, dishing out six assists to get Iowa's offense flowing again. All told, she scored or assisted on 30 of Iowa's 53 second half points.

Her most remarkable stretch of the game -- and maybe of her entire Iowa career -- came with a minute to play in the fourth quarter. After an Aaliyah Guyton three-pointer with 1:22 to go had cut Iowa's deficit from 12 to nine points, the Buckeyes split a pair of free throws to restore the lead to 10 points. Then Olsen, previously 0-for-3 from deep, made a three-pointer with 1:01 to go.

Then she made another triple with 0:31 to go to cut the deficit to six.

And then she made another three-pointer -- her third in 36 seconds of game action -- to cut the deficit to four after Ohio State had split another pair of free throws.

Olsen has struggled mightily from beyond the arc at times this season, but in the biggest moment of the game, she channeled her inner Caitlin Clark and made three massive shots to bring Iowa close. Her last critical buckets in Iowa's improbable comeback came not from behind the three-point arc but at the free throw line.

After drawing a foul with 3.6 seconds remaining, Olsen, who had gone 4-of-8 at the free throw line prior to that point, drained both attempts to tie the game and send it to overtime. Olsen scored all four of Iowa's points in overtime as well, though her magic did eventually run out, as Ohio State pulled away for the 86-78 win.

"One thing about Lucy, she has a short memory," Harmon said after the game. "That's good as a basketball player. Maybe she didn't have a great first two quarters, but she was able to lock back in and then I thought she did some great things coming down the stretch. Even being able to get seven assists as a point guard and playing as much as she did, almost 40 minutes, and only having three turnovers when we got being pressed more than half the game. I was impressed with her stat line."

While Olsen -- and Iowa -- ultimately came up short in the quest for a seventh-straight win, they were only in position to have a shot at earning that victory because of Olsen's scorching-hot run to end regulation. Olsen's struggles were a key storyline during Iowa's five-game losing streak a month ago and her improved play has been a key factor in Iowa's much improved play since then, which was shown in vivid detail down the stretch on Monday.

While Olsen's late game heroics sent the game to overtime and gave Iowa an opportunity to seize an improbable victory, she had that platform only because of some excellent play by some of her teammates earlier in the second half. Olsen had a big second half after a quieter opening frame, but she was far from the only Hawkeye for whom that was true.

Sydney Affolter and Kyle Feuerbach each finished with double figures after being held scoreless in the first half -- and their points were vital to Iowa's comeback bid. Affolter finished with 11 points and a career high-tying 15 rebounds, which was also her fifth double-double of the season.

Eight of her 11 points came during the third quarter as Iowa clawed its way back into the game after that forgettable first half. Her final three points were crucial as well -- her layup, plus an and-1 free throw near the end of regulation cut OSU's lead to one and set up Olsen's game-tying free throws moments later.

Affolter not only made important contributions scoring the ball and on the glass -- she also drew the toughest defensive assignment on the Ohio State team, against star forward Cotie McMahon.

"For Sydney, she had probably one of the toughest matchups. Guarding Cotie McMahon is no easy task and Sydney's done it almost every year she's been here," Harmon said. "But to stay relentless on glass, that's what's needed of her. She did a great job with that. Her trying to contain Cotie is no easy task, but you think about what she was able to do in the first three quarters -- I think Cotie was like 1 for 10."

McMahon finished with 25 points, but she had to work hard to get those points -- and several of them came at the free throw line. She had 10 points on 2-of-12 shooting through three quarters, with half of those points coming via the charity stripe. McMahon found her rhythm on offense in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, though foul trouble also forced Iowa's defense to be somewhat less aggressive at that point, which benefited McMahon.

By the end of overtime, Affolter, Feuerbach, and Hannah Stuelke all fouled out of the game and Lucy Olsen finished the contest with four fouls. For the game, Iowa was called for 29 fouls, which resulted in 38 Ohio State trips to the free throw line. Ohio State was dinged for 21 fouls, leading to 24 Iowa free throws.

"It definitely [had an impact]," Affolter said. "Me and Hannah each had four fouls. You kind of have to be a little bit less aggressive. I think we rely on our defense and it kind of let us down a little bit [at the end]."

Feuerbach's contributions should not be overlooked, either. After a scoreless first half in which she had two fouls and went 0-of-3 from the floor, Feuerbach was perfect from the field in the second half: 4-for-4 from the field (and 2-of-2 from 3-point range) for 12 points.

She scored Iowa's first five points of the fourth quarter to cut the OSU lead to four points and she had buckets later in the quarter that helped keep Iowa within touching distance of the Buckeyes as well. Feuerbach is a streaky shooter on offense, but she found a hot streak at the perfect moment on Monday.

Ultimately, despite the heroics and the late-game drama, Monday's game will still go down as a loss in the record books and Iowa isn't in the market for moral victories, especially not at this late point in the season. Still -- there were a lot of positives for this team and this coaching staff to take away from the defeat.

"I loved how they fought," Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said after the game. "They could have folded. It was like an accordion -- we didn't start out so great, got down 13, cut it to two in the third quarter, [then] let that go back to seven [the end of the quarter]. But they never stopped fighting. That's been the theme. They've always fought, they always stayed the course. We had some freshman playing at the end of overtime, which is going to be real valuable minutes, but they made some freshman errors, so they're bummed in the locker room, as is everybody."

Foul trouble for Affolter and Feuerbach led to increased minutes for Aaliyah Guyton and Teagan Mallegni on Monday, with both of them playing most of the overtime session after the veterans had fouled out. Those minutes should provide useful experience for the freshmen as their careers develop at Iowa -- but it also led to a few costly miscues late in the game today. Such is life with freshmen in high-pressure situations.

"There was a lot of good things, with the fight, taking a top 10 team to the ropes," Jensen said about the positives to take from Monday's result. "Our expectation, certainly mine, when we get it to that point, is to be able to execute down the stretch and doing what we need to do when we need to do it."

The game also highlighted how small the margins are in games like this and against opponents as talented as the Buckeyes. The Hawkeyes ended up turning the ball over 20 times and on 25.6% of their total offensive possessions, leading to 23 OSU points. Forcing turnovers is what the Buckeye defense specializes in, but Iowa needed to do a better job of taking care of the ball if they were going to pull the upset. Iowa also went just 12-of-22 on layups or shots around the rim; it's tough to pull off an upset if you're missing 45% of your attempts around the basket.

Still, despite all that, Iowa had an excellent opportunity to steal the game entering overtime. The Buckeyes seemed rocked and on their heels after Iowa's late charge to tie the game. The Hawkeyes even scored first in the extra session, on an Olsen layup. Things went sideways for the Hawkeyes after that, though, as Harmon noted.

"Going into overtime we did have the momentum and we came out and we struck first, we hit that first bucket," she explained after the game. "The first four possessions in overtime are super pivotal. We came out and we scored on that first possessions but then either we had 3 straight turnovers or we didn't get any shot the next three possessions. Then we were in a little bit of trouble because then you have to start fouling."

Iowa's possessions after going up 76-74 in overtime:

* missed Guyton three-pointer, offensive rebound, another missed Guyton three-pointer

* turnover by Guyton

* team turnover

Iowa had opportunities to extend their lead and make it a two- or three-possession lead, which may have put the Buckeyes into panic mode. Unfortunately, they weren't able to make the plays they needed to make and the opportunity slipped through their fingers.

Still, even the opportunity to grab an upset win over a top-10 Ohio State team team didn't seem plausible a month ago (or even during the first half). Jensen and Harmon were both pleased with the progress Iowa has made over the last month of the season and with how they're playing overall at present.

"The positives are, man, you look back four and a half weeks ago [compared to] doing what we're doing now," Jensen said after the game.

"But we always say we want to be playing our best basketball in February and I think you take away one quarter and we were right there," Harmon added.

NEXT: Iowa returns home to host #3 UCLA (24-1, 12-1) on Sunday, February 23. The game is scheduled to tip off at 1 PM CT and will air on Peacock.