Instant Takeaways From Iowa Women's Basketball's Win Over Northern Iowa

Iowa women's basketball was looking for a response after losing to UConn on Sunday, and it's safe to say it got it on Thursday. 

Visiting in-state foe Northern Iowa already came in severely under-matched from the start  and was no match for the Hawkeyes. Iowa jumped to an 18-5 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, securing a 78-40 win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. 

The Hawkeyes improve to 3-1 on the young season with the victory. Here are some instant observations: 

Iowa came into this game with a distinct size advantage, so it wasn't surprising to see its defense completely overwhelm Northern Iowa from the get-go. Every touch the Panthers tried to get inside was met with a seemingly endless wall of white jerseys, resulting in UNI either getting called for or come very close to committing a three-second call. Either way, the Panthers had nothing going in the half court because of Iowa's relentless double-teams. 

There wasn't any particular stretch in this game that defined this because the Hawkeyes were simply all over the basketball throughout this game. Northern Iowa went 4:11 without a bucket in the first quarter to lead to a 14-2 Iowa run, and if that's not enough, Iowa made it even worse in the second. The Panthers went over seven minutes without a field goal  across another massive Hawkeye scoring run. Not surprisingly, Northern Iowa was very turnover prone during this stretch, committing 17 in the first half alone.  

The Panthers had more lengthy scoring droughts in the second half, but few people in the building showed as much excitement as the first half because the Hawkeyes were already leading by 40+ points at that point. UNI shot just 25% from the floor in this one and committed 26 total turnovers. 

Amari Whiting was recognized pregame for surpassing 1,000 career points during Sunday's loss to UConn, and third-year Dani Carnegie decided she should probably break her own 1,000-point mark in this game. The Georgia transfer only needed 13 points to do so and did just that, finishing with a team-high 22 points, six assists, and four rebounds. 

Not only was the milestone broken with a near double-double, Carnegie's 1,000th career point came on a layup to beat the halftime buzzer, delighting the Hawkeye faithful. 

The box score doesn't always tell the full story, but this was one of those nights where head coach Jan Jensen could empty her bench to get some valuable experience for some of her players. Both Jocelyn Faison and Bria Medina haven't been utilized a ton this year, but Thursday was the night they saw extended minutes. 

Faison, who transferred with Carnegie from Georgia, played 18 minutes and netted seven points, while Medina, a Division III transfer from Knox College, registered 11 minutes and tallied two points (two free throws). It was certainly a small sample size, but every minute counts in these types of games. 

Though Thursday's contest didn't go UNI's way, it was still special for one Panther. Third-year guard Callie Levin is in her first season with Northern Iowa after transferring from Iowa in the offseason. Some opposing fanbases don't treat their former players with a lot of love when they return to their old stomping grounds, but that's never the case in Iowa City. 

The Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd gave Levin a loud roar when she was introduced in the starting lineups before the game. Levin finished with six points – the second-highest number for Northern Iowa. 

Levin met with the media after the game to discuss her return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and it didn't take long for her to tear up and reflect on what it meant to her to be able to start a game inside the place she always longed to play in as a kid. 

"I'm really grateful to be here. I lost a lot of confidence along the way and Coach T [UNI head coach Tayna Warren] has instilled a lot of confidence in me," Levin said. "It's all glory to God. I can't even put it into words. He's just done so much for me." 

The Hawkeyes return to action on Sunday, Nov. 15, for another major non-conference tilt, this time against the No. 8 Vanderbilt Commodores. The contest figures to be a stiff challenge for Iowa, but the Hawkeyes do have the comfort of playing in the state of Iowa at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City. 

Tipoff is set for 12 p.m. on FS1.