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The No. 24 Iowa Hawkeyes capped off one of their biggest years in history with a fairly easy victory over the visiting Purdue Boilermakers, 84-63.

It was Iowa’s first Big Ten victory of the season after losing their conference opener to the No. 19 Michigan State Spartans. This victory comes after being off for nine days for the holidays.

Though it was a sound victory, the Boilermakers, much like the Northern Iowa Panthers on Dec. 21, gave the Hawkeyes all they could handle. After a first quarter in which the Hawkeyes were in complete control, leading 27-13, the Boilermakers made huge runs in the second quarter to bring them within contention. Iowa was hampered with a three minute scoring drought, along with some sloppy turnovers.

The same pattern repeated in the third quarter with the Boilermakers cutting the margin to eight points after being down by eighteen earlier. However, the Hawkeyes closed out the period in dominating fashion to get back to a double digit lead. From there, the Hawkeyes had the game in the bag.

A primary theme for the game was the Hawkeyes’ even scoring distribution. Senior big Addison O’Grady finished as the only player to score in double figures with 12 points. Meanwhile, five players—junior forward Hannah Stuelke, senior guard Sydney Affolter, freshman guard Taylor Stremlow, freshman guard Aaliyah Guyton and freshman center Ava Heiden—finished with nine points each. Freshman guard Teegan Mallegni captured eight points, while senior guard Lucy Olsen finished with six points and six assists. Redshirt senior guard Kylie Feuerbach came away with six points, both from beyond the arc in the second half.

It was a game in which four freshmen—Stremlow, Guyton, Heiden and Mallengi—played a big part, coming off the bench to help Iowa outscore Purdue in bench points. 42-27.

Given the mixture of freshmen and core veteran talent, the chemistry of the team blossomed in the way they all contributed points, and speaks to the journey the team has been on since the summer, striving to establish a solid unit. The postgame press conference featured two of the freshman, with Stremlow speaking to the team’s dynamic, as Guyton was present but battling a sore throat. Stremlow emphasized:

I think we’ve come a long way. I know we have since this summer. I’m sure Aaliyah would agree, especially Aaliyah coming back from an injury. You hesitate to think how everything will mesh, but as you can see we are all flowing well together. It’s really fun to play with that chemistry and obviously we had some moments, like I bumped into Teegan (Mallengi) a couple of times, but I think just fixing those things and we’ll be fine.

In a year which saw Caitlin Clark become the all-time leading scorer in college basketball, followed by a second-consecutive appearance in the national championship game, the Hawkeyes can take a breather. They’ve defied expectations in the first half of the season with a new coach and new dynamic. Since she was hired in May following the retirement of Lisa Bluder, head coach Jan Jensen has experienced a full-speed ahead journey, one she traces back to when she first started with Iowa in 2000, sharing:

I mean it’s been a heck of a year. I’ve been blessed. I was blessed in 2000, 2001 all up to ‘23, ‘24. My ride here has been something, so was my ride earlier. I think the deal is you just don’t slow down. I’ve never felt the day go faster, and so I never really reflected on that until you asked.

Jensen gave a shout out to Purdue coach Katie Geralds, who presented Jensen with flowers before the game in tribute to the recent passing of former player and Hawkeye radio analyst Jamie Cavey-Lang, who passed away from cancer at age 41 on Dec. 23. Jensen said:

How classy was Katie Geralds? Katie Geralds played against Jamie and Katie is really thoughtful. When I lost my dad, she was one of the first to call, send flowers to the office. Just really classy. It was really touching.

Cavey-Lang played for Iowa from 2001 to 2005. She scored 1,265 career points, which is 27th in program history.

No. 24 Iowa (11-2, 1-1) will hit the road to take on Penn State (9-4, 0-2) on Wednesday, Jan. 1 at 12 p.m. ET.