IOWA CITY — Never any doubt — but maybe a little bit of sweat.

Iowa shook off a slow start against Wisconsin on Senior Day before cruising to an 81-66 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Sunday afternoon. Lucy Olsen led all scorers with 22 points in the victory, while Hannah Stuelke added 21 and 15 rebounds — one off a career high for the junior forward.

READ MORE: Lucy Olsen’s Full-Circle Scoring

With the win, Iowa clinches a 20-win season and a winning record in the Big Ten (20-9, 10-8) in Jan Jensen’s first year as a head coach. Its reward? An 11-seed in the Big Ten Tournament, and a rematch with these Badgers in the first round of action.

1. No stinking Badgers. Forget the 22-point spread that Iowa came into Sunday favored by. Wisconsin did the best thing an overmatched visitor can do on a day like Senior Day: it gave the Hawkeyes 40 minutes of spirited competition.

Wisconsin even pushed Iowa to a tie at 36-36 at halftime, spurred by a deadly high-low combination of Carter McCray and Serah Williams and 3-4 shooting from deep for Tess Myers — part of a 50% three-point shooting half for the upstart Badgers.

“At halftime, [Jensen] gave it to us a little bit, and made sure we locked in,” said Olsen. “We had to focus up, but we’ve been in a lot of situations of close games, which has helped us, um grow and not like peel back on the pressure; we stepped up to it.”

While Jensen acknowledged the havoc the emotions of Senior Day can play on a team — “they’re just weird,” said Jensen — she also acknowledged it didn’t take much edge off her halftime speech.

“I kind of did, you know, get a little bit intense at halftime,” said Jensen. “I didn’t think our defensive intensity was there. I think we were too kind of worried about all the emotions or, it felt like we just didn’t have our focus. I just reminded them, “What team have we played this year that we won really easily without a fight, with the exception of Washington? None.’”

Message received by the black and gold, as Iowa quickly hit three consecutive three-pointers to push the lead to nine, at 45-36; Wisconsin would never get closer than five from there on out, and Iowa’s lead never dipped below nine in the fourth quarter.

And though nobody on Wisconsin would (or even should) agree with the sentiment, the Badgers were also gracious enough guests to be down big enough by the final minutes for Iowa’s five-player lineup to make their ceremonious exits in the final minute of the game, with Affolter to AJ Ediger hailed by the Carver crowd.

Indeed, once Wisconsin’s edge in three-point shooting evaporated — the Badgers shot just 1-for-7 from deep in the second half, and finished the game with a lower percentage from deep than the Hawkeyes (35% for Iowa, 33.3% for Wisconsin) — the game’s balance lurched back in Iowa’s favor, where it more-or-less belonged, especially with Stuelke turning in one of her best games of the season.

2. Stuelke leaves no doubt. For all the advanced stats, the quadrants of wins, the this and that, a 20-win season is a welcome milestone for any team, in any league.

“A lot of people thought that we might not even do that,” said Stuelke. “So being able to do that for [Jensen] in her first season was just really special for us.”

Wisconsin likely wishes Stuelke could have been that nice on the court, as the forward dominated the paint and boards — and threw in a game-high four steals to boot.

Stuelke’s season hasn’t gone quite as planned — the junior’s outside shot never materialized as a weapon to draw defenders to the perimeter before Iowa moved her back to the 5 — but if there was any lingering doubt about Stuelke’s ability to dominate the interior, even against solid competition, she put that away Sunday.

Stuelke drew seven fouls (and committed none!) against the likes of Serah Williams and Carter McCray — Wisconsin’s two leading scorers, who finished with 18 and 17 points, respectively, terrorizing the rest of the Hawkeye lineup on the interior until Jensen even went back to a “traditional” defense with Stuelke at the 4 and O’Grady at the 5.

That combination [of Williams and McCray] is that high-low,” said Jensen. “You don’t see that very much. I love that style. And they they do it well. So, they played hard. It wasn’t us just being off.”

As hard as those two played, it didn’t stop Stuelke from corralling a career-high nine offensive rebounds.

“I was missing some shots, so a couple of those were just off my missed shot,” said Stuelke. “I think we all really wanted to get a win for the seniors, their last game in Carver, so I think that boosted my energy off that.”

“Aww!” responded Olsen, seated next to Stuelke at the postgame press conference.

3. There’ll never be a senior class like this, either. For as much attention as Iowa’s five-player senior class of 2024 garnered, headlined by future WNBA impact rookies Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin, this year’s group of five seniors occupies its own unique spot in Hawkeye history, both as the bridge between the Bluder and Jensen eras and on their own merits.

Affolter’s line of 10 points, four rebounds and three assists wasn’t quite as splashy as her most recent stretch of play, but she was instrumental in the second-half surge with eight of her ten points coming on 3-3 shooting, including a pair of three-pointers.

Affolter finished 2-3 from deep, which is a nice enough line in a vacuum but now par for the course for the senior, who’s up to 20-for-32 from deep in the team’s last 10 games, an 8-2 spree against the teeth of the Big Ten after the five-game losing streak.

Olsen’s legacy is pretty well set in stone as a beloved Hawkeye, no small feat for a transfer stepping into the unfathomable void left by #22.

“I just give Lucy so much credit because few people would have the courage to really look at a school where the GOAT had just left,” said Jensen. “She just really likedour culture and that we have great fans, and she felt the culture when she came. And that was amazing. But then she held with all the changes. And it’s just hard to be a point guard in the portal when you come in, and then you have a coaching change, right? So … I just can’t say enough, and I think she’s done a really beautiful job.”

Meanwhile, Feuerbach never developed into an out-and-out star for the Hawkeyes — not that there was much room or even need for one — but even in the flux of last season to this, her role found its water level and she ended up being the defensive stopper fans and coaches expected at the beginning of the season. A steal Sunday pushed Feuerbach’s season total to 34, just three off Affolter for the team lead.

“Our vets were a little inconsistent [earlier in the season] and the freshmen were kind of leading us,” said Jensen. “I think the vets have mostly settled, so hopefully they can lead them into [the postseason]. And I hope it’s that confidence and the memory and just playing with a lightness and a joy that’ll carry us to some fun in March.”

Even through injury and a logjam of talent in front of her, Ediger’s presence has been an obvious boon to team chemistry, and it’s no surprise she awaits each starter for a personalized greeting during opening introductions.

But perhaps no senior campaign has been as up-and-down — and has been sweeter to see end on a high note — than once-maligned center Addi O’Grady, who shot 5-for-5 off the bench Sunday and was roundly greeted with ovations by the Carver crowd, whether she was coming on or off the court.

Iowa’s struggles with O’Grady at the 5 had as much to do with Stuelke’s limitations as a 4 — especially in the perimeter-happy Iowa offense — but O’Grady’s effort and production never wavered through a move back to the bench. That, as much as the team finding its identity with four guards on the floor. has helped Iowa become one of the most dangerous double-digit seeds any conference tournament has seen in quite some time.

“We’re hitting [our stride] at the right spot,” said Olsen. “Coach J has always said, ‘be at your best in March,’ and I think we’re doing just that. The beginning was a little wonky, but we figured that out and I’m excited. The momentum’s on our side right now.”

Iowa begins Big Ten Tournament play in Indianapolis with a rematch against the Badgers, which tips off at 7:30 PM CT on the Big Ten Network. A win would pit the Hawkeyes against six-seed Michigan State, who beat Iowa 68-66 in the Big Ten opener.