Nyla Hampton scored all 13 of her points in the fourth quarter and No. 17 Michigan State hung on to edge No. 21 Iowa 68-66 in East Lansing, Mich., in the Big Ten opener for each team on Sunday afternoon.
Julia Ayrault led the Spartans (10-0, 1-0 Big Ten) with 19 points and Grace VanSlooten added 14 points, seven rebounds and three steals, but they gave way to Hampton, who netted all but six of Michigan State’s points in the fourth.
Iowa (9-2, 0-1), which took the lead just before halftime, extended its bulge to 58-49 with 8:49 left in the game.
Michigan State then scored 14 straight points. Hampton tallied eight of those points, including scoring off her own offensive rebound to put the Spartans ahead 60-58 with 5:45 to play. Julia Ayrault’s three-point play capped the burst with 5:07 left.
The Hawkeyes still trailed by seven late but scored six straight points, the final two on free throws by Sydney Affolter, to pull within 67-66 with 19 seconds remaining. But Hampton split a pair of free throws with one second left.
Hannah Stuelke paced Iowa with 18 points and eight rebounds. Lucy Olsen put up 13 points but hit only 4 of 17 shots from the field and was responsible for seven of the Hawkeyes’ 23 turnovers. Kylie Feuerbach chipped in 12 points.
Michigan State, which began the day fifth in Division I in scoring at 91.4 points per game, shot 39.7 percent from the field and hit 6 of 19 on 3-point attempts, while Iowa finished at 36.5 percent and went 9 of 25 from deep.
–Field Level Media