Iowa
Iowa Hawkeyes upset USC 76-69, ahead of Clark jersey retirement
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG/AP) – The Iowa Women’s basketball team came out victorious in its game against No. 4 USC on Sunday, winning 76-69.
Lucy Olsen scored 28 points and Addison O’Grady had 13 as Iowa topped No. 4 USC 76-69 on Sunday, snapping the Trojans’ 15-game winning streak.
The win came on a day when Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey number 22 in a postgame ceremony, and the Hawkeyes delivered a win to add to the honor.
Iowa (15-7, 5-6 Big Ten) opened the game with an 18-1 run, fought off a 17-1 response by the Trojans in the second quarter, then matched USC the rest of the way.
The Trojans’ biggest lead was 47-41 in the third quarter, and they were up 50-45 with 2:09 left in the period before the Hawkeyes scored six consecutive points, capped by Olsen’s jumper right before the buzzer.
Olsen and O’Grady took control of the game in the second half. They had 23 of Iowa’s 25 fourth-quarter points to secure the win.
Sydney Affolter had 11 points and nine rebounds, and Hannah Stuelke added 10 points for the Hawkeyes.
JuJu Watkins led USC (19-2, 9-1) with 27 points. Kiki Iriafen had 13 points, and Kennedy Smith had 11.
Takeaways:
USC: The Trojans were staggered by Iowa’s early start, yet had a second-quarter response. Watkins got her points, but was 8 of 22 from the field, 1 of 7 in 3-pointers.
Iowa: The Hawkeyes were at their best to start the game, feeding off the emotion of a sellout crowd of 14,998. With Clark in attendance, the game felt like some of her best moments over the last couple of the seasons.
Key moment:
USC had gotten to within 63-60 with five minutes to play, but O’Grady and Olsen answered with three consecutive field goals to put the Hawkeyes in command. Olsen later converted on a 3-point play — O’Grady had the assist on her layup — and Iowa had a 72-62 lead.
Key stat:
USC missed 20 of its first 22 shots. Watkins had the Trojans’ lone field goal in the first quarter.
Up next:
Iowa: At Minnesota on Thursday.
The game came ahead of the University of Iowa’s ceremony retiring basketball star Caitlin Clark’s No. 22 jersey inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“I’m forever proud to be a Hawkeye and Iowa holds a special place in my heart that is bigger than just basketball,” Clark said. “It means the world to me to receive this honor and to celebrate it with my family, friends and alumni. It will be a great feeling to look up in the rafters and see my jersey alongside those that I’ve admired for so long.”
Copyright 2025 KCRG. All rights reserved.
Iowa
Pat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
Cyclones star Audi Crooks on Iowa State’s loss to Baylor
Iowa State’s Audi Crooks on her team’s first loss of the season to Baylor.
Audi Crooks and Iowa State women’s basketball are officially sweeping the nation.
On Tuesday’s edition of “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN, the Cyclones’ star and NCAA women’s basketball scoring leader garnered significant praise from the former-NFL-punter-turned-media-personality.
“I’m a huge fan of the way she operates. Huge fan,” McAfee said. “She just gets buckets. That’s literally all she does.
“Did I know anything about Iowa State’s women’s basketball team ever? Nope. But Audi Crooks highlights pop up on my (algorithm), and I say, ‘Boys, immediately, I’m making a song, we’re making a highlight,’ because people are trying to take shots at Audi right now.”
The song and video McAfee referenced was posted on his social media and played on his show before his monologue about Crooks. It features a stylish edit of Crooks points accompanied by what appears to be an AI-generated song with the chorus of, “You’re about to get cooked, by Audi Crooks.”
The “shots” at Crooks that McAfee mentioned refer to a TikTok posted by ESPN with the caption, “Baylor exposed Audi Crooks on defense,” which came in ISU’s first loss of the season on Jan. 4.
Audi Crooks stats
- 2025-26 season (14 games): 29.1 points (NCAA leader), 6.7 rebounds, 71% shooting
- 2024-25 season: 23.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 60.5% shooting
- 2023-24 season: 19.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 57.7% shooting
Iowa
Iowa women’s basketball, Chit-Chat Wright sick, Kylie Feuerbach update
Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen talks about Northwestern game
Iowa women’s basketball coach Jan Jensen talks about victory at Northwestern on Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in Evanston, Illinois.
Iowa women’s basketball was lacking some of its vocal leadership on Monday at Northwestern.
Part of that was the fact that Hawkeyes senior Kylie Feuerbach is still sidelined with an ankle injury. Another part was the fact that Chit-Chat Wright was not feeling great.
“No excuse, but Chat’s really sick,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said after the Hawkeyes’ 67-58 victory. “She didn’t have the flu game like (Michael) Jordan. But she’s really sick, like fever. And I think that just threw her. She was really not vocal tonight. So we were kinda searching, because Chat had been coming (as a leader).”
Wright fought through it and played 34 minutes, scoring 12 points and dishing out seven assists.
Jensen confirmed that Feuerbach remains day-to-day. She hasn’t played since getting hurt Dec. 20 vs. UConn.
“I think (our leadership tonight) was by committee,” Jensen said. “It just wasn’t the same person every time. … It’ll be nice to get Kylie back in that lineup.”
Feuerbach, the team’s best perimeter defender, has missed Iowa’s last three games. Jensen said she is pleased overall with how her team has played defensively in Feuerbach’s absence.
“(Against Northwestern) it was more an ‘us’ problem offensively,” Jensen said. “Our defense held. … We turned the ball over 20 times.”
Iowa
Two killed in Dubuque after bar fight escalates into police shooting
Two people are dead after a Dubuque bar fight escalated, with one man shooting another and then being killed by police.
An officer with the Dubuque Police Department was outside the Odd Fellows bar just before 1 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4, when he witnessed a physical altercation, according to a news release from the Dubuque Police Department.
As the officer exited the patrol vehicle, an adult man allegedly used a handgun to shoot one of the people involved in the fight. The officer fired at the offender, who then ran into the bar.
The victim who was shot first was provided medical treatment by officers at the scene and then transported to MercyOne Hospital in Dubuque.
The offender was treated by police officers inside the bar and then transported to UnityPoint Finley Hospital.
Both were later pronounced dead.
The names of those involved are not being released at this time pending notification of family members.
The incident is being investigated by the Dubuque Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The officer involved was not injured and has been placed on critical incident leave in accordance with the department’s policies.
Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.
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