Women’s Basketball: Iowa Preview

The Michigan State Spartan women welcome the Iowa Hawkeyes to East Lansing today for the home opener in Big Ten play for MSU. The game wraps up early conference play before the Spartans play three more non-conference games. The game will tip at 4 p.m. EST and stream on BTN+.

The Spartans enter this matchup at 3-0, while Iowa is 3-0. The Hawkeyes feature non-conference wins over Northern Iowa, Drake, and Iowa State. They also defeated Wisconsin 85-78 in Iowa City last Saturday, Dec. 5. Much like the men, the women’s team features a deadly offense as Iowa ranked 17th in the nation and fourth in the conference in scoring offense. They are averaging 91.5 points per game, while averaging 19.5 assists per game which is good for 16th in the country and third in the Big Ten.

Four Hawkeyes are averaging double-figures. Freshman Caitlin Clark leads the Hawkeyes with 28.5 points per game while also grabbing 5.8 boards. Monika Czinano’s 20 points per game, McKenna Warlock’s 15 points per game, and Gabbie Marshall’s 10 points per game round out the double-digit scorers.

Overall, Iowa leads the series over MSU 39-29, and MSU is currently in a two-game losing streak and has lost four of the last five against the Hawkeyes. However, the Spartans won four of the previous five prior to that. Michigan State’s last win in the series came on Feb. 1, 2018 in an 84-70 win in the Breslin Center. Believe it or not, but that was also the home Big Ten opener that season as well.