Takeaways as Iowa women's basketball rolls past Ohio State

The Iowa women's basketball team is on quite a heater right now.

With the 10th-ranked Hawkeyes' 91-70 win over No. 11 Ohio State on Sunday, Iowa has now won eight games in a row and currently sits at 18-2 overall and 9-0 in Big Ten play. The win over the Buckeyes was Iowa's third-straight victory over a top-15 team, a feat they had never accomplished before.

Despite an early injury to senior guard Taylor McCabe, the Hawkeyes rallied to play one of their best games of the season and beat a strong Ohio State squad. Jan Jensen's team is rolling and starting to put everything together as February looms.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Iowa's big Sunday victory over Ohio State:

Addie Deal has arrived

It took a little time to get adjusted, but five-star freshman guard Addie Deal has arrived, and the rest of the country should be terrified. After McCabe left with injury on the game's first possession, Jensen turned to Deal to provide big minutes, and she delivered. Deal played a career-high 32 minutes off the bench and scored a career-best 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting.

The freshman guard also added three rebounds and five assists to round out the best performance of her short Iowa career so far. If McCabe has to miss some time, Jensen has a great option to turn to in Deal to provide a strong scoring punch. Iowa's ceiling this season gets a lot higher if Deal is playing like this on a consistent basis.

Iowa's post players dominated

The Hawkeyes have a pair of extraordinary post players in the starting lineup, and they were both elite on Sunday. Senior forward Hannah Stuelke had 18 points and 15 rebounds on 8-of-13 shooting. Sophomore center Ava Heiden had 18 points, eight rebounds, four steals, and two blocks on 9-of-11 shooting. They were both highly effective and efficient against a strong Buckeye frontcourt, helping lead Iowa to the win.

When Stuelke and Heiden are both playing like that, there aren't many teams in the country that can beat the Hawkeyes. Jensen likes to run her offense through the post players, and that becomes a lot easier to do when the post players are in complete control of the game. It's not a coincidence that Iowa is playing its best basketball of the season at the same time that Stuelke and Heiden are at the top of their games.

Jan Jensen deserves a ton of credit

When Jensen took over the program following the retirement of Lisa Bluder, there was a lot of pressure on her to keep the standards of the program high. She had to do a mini-rebuild of the roster following the departure of a record-breaking senior class, and she's done just that. Iowa was a good team last year, but they've elevated themselves back up to elite status this year.

Through a combination of fantastic recruiting, savvy transfer portal additions, and getting her roster to buy in, Jensen has Iowa right back at the top of the Big Ten conference and a legitimate national contender. And with the big-name recruits slated to join the program over the next few years, this looks like the beginning of another special run in Iowa City.

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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Takeaways as Iowa women's basketball rolls past Ohio State