Coming off a loss at home to Michigan last weekend, the Lady Lions ran into one of the best teams in the country, the No. 2 Iowa Hawkeyes. As many might have expected, it wasn’t [autotag]Caitlin Clark[/autotag] that led to Penn State’s demise, but rather sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke, who completely stole the show.
Stuelke scored a career-high 47 points on 17-20 shooting, good for second most in Iowa history, pacing Iowa to a 111-93 victory. Stuelke became the first player not named Caitlin Clark to score 30-plus points since 2022. Clark was no slouch, scoring 27 points of her own and distributing the ball beautifully with 15 assists for her 56th career double-double. She is now just 39 points away from becoming the NCAA women’s basketball all-time leading scorer.
Penn State was able to force Clark into 12 turnovers, but the points in the paint were the game’s real story. Stuelke dominated with her 6-foot-2-inch frame and was no match for the Lady Lions inside. Stuelke had a chance to break Megan Gustafson’s Iowa record for most points in a single game (48), but only making 13 of her 21 free throws ended her chance. Stuelke did, however, surpass Clark’s second-place points record of 46 points.
The points in the paint favored the Hawkeyes 56-30, and despite the Lady Lions keeping it close heading into halftime, the dominance inside was just too much to overcome.
[autotag]Ashley Owusu[/autotag] led Penn State with 18 points, but like the rest of her team, she was inefficient from the field, only hitting four of her 15 shots and missing all five of her 3-point attempts. [autotag]Makenna Marisa[/autotag] and [autotag]Leilani Kapinus[/autotag] added 12 points each but also couldn’t get much to go in the bucket.
Penn State could not score inside to match the physicality of Shuelke and Iowa. The Lady Lions had more shot attempts than the Hawkeyes but could not convert on enough of them to take down the number two team in the nation.
Penn State women’s basketball team will be back in action on Sunday to take on the Wisconsin Badgers. The Lady Lions will be looking to snap their two-game skid and grab a road in Madison. The game will tip off at 3 p.m. and broadcast on Big Ten Network Plus.