Dani Carnegie Scores 21 in Hawkeye Debut as No. 10 Iowa Opens With 73-45 Win Over Towson

IOWA CITY, Iowa. Dani Carnegie's first half in a Hawkeye uniform was a lesson in patience. The transfer guard missed all five of her 3-point tries before the break. Then the second half started, and Carnegie looked like the player Iowa brought in to be.

Carnegie scored 17 of her game-high 21 points after halftime, and No. 10 Iowa pulled away from Towson for a 73-45 season-opening win at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Monday night, Nov. 2. Chazadi Wright added 14 points and three 3s, first-year forward McKenna Woliczko posted 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocks in her college debut, and the Hawkeyes dominated the glass 52-27.

Iowa moved to 1-0 and Towson fell to 0-1. Here is the box score (opens in a new tab) and Iowa's recap (opens in a new tab).

A sticky start, then a 10-0 finish to the half

This one did not start smoothly. Iowa went more than three minutes without a point until Woliczko buried a 3 with 6:59 left in the first quarter, the first points of the Hawkeyes' season and of her college career. That shot loosened things up. Layla Hays opened a 7-0 run with a layup, Iowa went up 10-4, and five made free throws helped the Hawkeyes to a 17-14 lead after one quarter.

The second quarter was where Iowa's defense took over. Towson managed just nine points in the period. The Hawkeyes had their own dry spell, going more than four minutes without a basket, until Journey Houston hit a 3 to restart the offense. From there Iowa closed the half on a 10-0 run, holding Towson scoreless for the final 5:17, and took a 33-23 lead into the locker room.

Iowa coach Jan Jensen did not pretend the offense looked finished. "Our offense got a little sticky," Jensen said afterward.

Carnegie finds the range

The third quarter belonged to Iowa's veterans. Wright hit a 3 and went to the line for three more points, Woliczko added four points and six rebounds in the period, and the lead stretched as far as 17. Iowa won the quarter 19-14 and carried a 52-37 lead into the fourth.

That set the stage for Carnegie. After the 0 for 5 first half from deep, the third-year guard went 3 of 5 from beyond the arc after the break and scored 10 points in the fourth quarter alone. She finished 7 of 15 from the floor, 3 of 10 from 3 and 4 of 6 at the line, with five rebounds and five assists in 30 minutes.

Those 21 points set a program record for a transfer in an Iowa debut, passing the 19 that Lucy Olsen scored against Northern Illinois on Nov. 6, 2024. It was the kind of debut that tells you something about a player's makeup. The easy thing after a cold half is to stop shooting. Carnegie kept firing and turned the second half into hers.

Iowa closed the game on a 12-0 run and held Towson without a point over the final 3:56. The Hawkeyes won the fourth quarter 21-8, shooting 8 of 16, and outscored the Tigers 40-22 after halftime.

Wright's milestone and Woliczko's debut

Wright, also a third-year guard, was Iowa's second option and a steady one. She made 3 of 8 from 3 and 5 of 6 at the line for her 14 points, and in the process she went past 400 career points at Iowa. She now sits at 401.

Woliczko gave the clearest preview of what the frontcourt could look like. The first-year forward went 4 of 6 from the floor, made one of her three 3-point tries, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and blocked three shots in 24 minutes. A post player who can open a season by stepping out and hitting a 3 gives Iowa a different look, and her work on the glass in the third quarter helped stretch the lead.

Hays added six points on 3 of 5 shooting and five rebounds in 17 minutes, and Houston finished with five points after that second-quarter 3. Ava Heiden was efficient alongside Woliczko, scoring seven points on 3 of 4 shooting with seven rebounds in 19 minutes. Taylor Stremlow added five points, seven rebounds and two steals off the bench.

The glass told the story

The scoreboard said 28 points, but the rebounding margin said even more. Iowa finished with 52 rebounds to Towson's 27, including 18 offensive boards to the Tigers' nine. Those second chances turned into a 21-2 edge in second-chance points, which is the whole game in one number on a night when Iowa shot just 8 of 29 from 3.

Seven different Hawkeyes grabbed at least five rebounds. Woliczko had eight, Heiden and Stremlow had seven apiece, and Carnegie, Hays, Amari Whiting and Jocelyn Faison had five each. Whiting and Faison were both making their Iowa debuts. Whiting chipped in three points and two assists in 24 minutes, and Faison had two points and three assists in 15 minutes.

The defense deserves credit too. Towson shot 19 of 61 from the floor, 31.1 percent, and 3 of 18 from 3, including 0 for 7 in the second half. The Tigers got to the line only seven times and made four.

"We didn't hit a lot of shots that we've typically been hitting, but I was really pleased with our defensive side," Jensen said.

Towson's bench spark

Towson's best offense came from its reserves. Eva Wilkerson scored 15 points on 6 of 11 shooting, made both of her 3-point tries, grabbed eight rebounds and had three steals in 29 minutes off the bench. Thalia Shepard added 13 points, though it took her 17 shots to get there.

The rest of the Tigers struggled to find anything. Zoli Khalil played a team-high 35 minutes and went 1 of 9 from the floor, and Asya Lara Barnes went 0 for 5, all but one of those attempts from deep. Ava Renninger had two points on 1 of 7 shooting and five turnovers. Towson had only six assists as a team.

Even so, the Tigers hung around for most of the first three quarters. A 14-point third quarter kept them within 15, and it took Iowa's closing burst to turn a solid win into a 28-point final.

What it means for Iowa

Iowa has now won 27 straight regular-season openers, and Jensen improved to 3-0 in season openers and 51-18 overall as head coach. The Hawkeyes are 2-0 all-time against Towson.

The bigger takeaway is that this is a roster still figuring itself out. All nine Hawkeyes who played scored, nobody logged more than 30 minutes, and Jensen made a point of saying the staff wanted to see different groups on the floor. "We were trying to get a lot of different combinations in," Jensen said. "I feel like we've got a lot of good things going and a lot of different combinations."

The offense was not pretty. Iowa assisted on only 12 of its 25 field goals, turned it over 16 times and went 15 of 23 at the line. Jensen sounded unbothered by that this early. "It takes a bit of time to really start to understand every way a defense plays you and how you need to counter it," Jensen said. "That'll be a work in progress, but certainly, I was thankful for the win."

The test is coming fast. Iowa hosts Eastern Illinois on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 7 p.m. CT on B1G Plus, then visits No. 2 UConn on Sunday, Nov. 8, at 1 p.m. CT on FS1. That trip will tell everyone a lot more about whether the rebounding edge and Carnegie's scoring can travel.

Sources: ESPN box score, Iowa Athletics recap.

Photo: Iowa Athletics.