Andrew Carnegie made an empire off of steel. Dani Carnegie didn’t have any steals tonight, but she made plenty of offense to make up for it.

UNI’s pressure stymied Iowa’s guards for about 5 minutes to open Thursday night’s in-state bout, but a scoring and playmaking outburst by Carnegie blew the game open, allowing the Hawkeyes to cruise to a 78-40 win over the Panthers.

Carnegie reached the 1,000 career point mark at the end of the second quarter, as she beat the buzzer for her 13th point of the night just before halftime. When all was said and done, Carnegie had 22 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds as she commanded the Hawkeye offense. The Georgia transfer gave Iowa coach Jan Jensen credit for the performance.

“Jan, I think she’s a great coach, the greatest coach I’ve ever had before,” Carnegie said. “I think she’s keeping me level-headed and knowing that all players… go through something, and it’s just staying focused and staying true, staying in the gym and just film. I think film is one of the biggest things I focused on this year.”

Beyond Carnegie, Iowa took advantage of physical and athletic advantages around the court to force turnovers, dominate the boards, and win in the paint, as junior Center Ava Heiden finished the night with 15 points and 4 rebounds, while freshman forward McKenna Woliczko just missed out on her first career double-double with 12 points and 9 boards.

“The UConn game was definitely a freshman game for me,” Woliczko said, referencing the Hawkeyes’ loss to UConn in which she drew the matchup against AP preseason first-team All-American Sarah Strong, who dominated the matchup. “I knew that game was going to be a tough game… but coming into it, I also knew that there was more to it than just that one game, it doesn’t define me as a player or [us] as a team.”

With the game put out of range early, both sides were able to give their backups heavy run, focus in on specific concepts and experiment with rotations.

“[This game was] a good opportunity to get other people some minutes and get different things,” Jensen said. “I was trying to look at a little bit of a 5-out offense, but you couldn’t really get that going because of fouls and turnovers.”

The game marked a homecoming for UNI’s Callie Levin, who transferred from Iowa this offseason. An Iowa native, Levin choked up discussing what her first start at Carver-Hawkeye Arena meant to her.
“I’m just really grateful to be here,” Levin said before continuing to credit Panther head coach Tanya Warren. “I lost a lot of confidence along the way, and coach has instilled a lot of confidence into me. So, yeah, just to be here, it’s all glory to God, I can’t even put it into words. He’s just done so much for me. That’s why I have this tattoo, ‘Count it all Joy.’ I look at it all game long, and it just means so much to me to just be here. I have so much confidence now in myself and my teammates. It took a lot to get there, but I’m really proud of myself to be here today.”

The Panthers saw their ball movement improve considerably after a stagnant first half, in which they turned the ball over 17 times as the Hawkeyes disrupted even basic actions, making it tough for UNI to build any momentum. After getting thrashed to a 29-point halftime deficit, the Panthers only gave up a -13 point differential before both sides emptied the benches with around 7 minutes left, a level of play that will translate once the Panthers are facing sides not on the level of the No. 10 Hawkeyes.

The Panthers have three major tests on the horizon, as they welcome Creighton, Iowa State and Green Bay to Cedar Falls, three programs that expect to see themselves in the NCAA tournament every year.

“As I just told [the team,] we don’t have a lot of time to pout,” Warren said. “We’ve got to get back to work tomorrow to play against a very good Creighton team. It’s a great opportunity for us.”

As for Iowa, UNI represented their most impressive win of the young season as they bounced back from a rout at the hands of No. 4 UConn. The Hawkeyes’ efficiency was solid throughout the night, with 56/37/83 shooting splits, and they reigned in the turnovers as the night went on while getting out in transition for 22 fast break points.

“I feel like coach has emphasized [pace] and showed us the past years about that break, what it looked like, and we’re not even there yet,” Carnegie said of the Hawkeyes’ pace. “We’re going to be there… [and] get better throughout the season.”

With a battle against Vanderbilt on Sunday, Jensen says that the Hawkeyes’ primary focuses head of playing Mikayla Blakes and the high-paced Commodores will be keeping the turnovers in check and rebounding at a higher clip.
“We just haven’t been hitting [rebounding] as much as we should, haven’t done that in practice as much, and it was kind of indicative here. Tomorrow, the only thing you can do is a few more rebounding drills than they might think they’re going to do 2 days before Vandy.”