Pair Of Iowa Players Set Career Highs vs. Nebraska

The Iowa Hawkeyes ended 2025 with a career high from sophomore guard Ava Heiden, and they kicked off 2026 with career highs from a different pair of players.

Taking on No. 20 Nebraska was no joke, but head coach Jan Jensen had her squad prepared for the challenge. In the end, Iowa prevailed, 86-76.

The win was guided by a stellar performance from transfer guard Chit-Chat Wright who scored a career-high 24 points. While sophomore guard Taylor Stremlow only added eight herself, eight was the magic number as that's the number of assists she had, a new career high for the Wisconsin native.

Chit-Chat Wright's 24 Points

What a day for No. 11. 😤

A career-high 24 PTS | 3 AST | 2 STL | 1 REB pic.twitter.com/cs0WqU9Sjs
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) January 1, 2026

Iowa's offense has been entirely different since they got the Georgia Tech transfer back. Wright took a hard fall against No. 7 Baylor earlier in the year when Iowa took part in the WBCA Showcase. She missed a few games, but returned with a vengeance when she dropped 21 points in her first taste of the Cy-Hawk rivalry.

Wright's 21 points against No. 10 Iowa State was the first time she dropped 20+ in her career. To see her do so against a Top 10 school was nothing short of incredible, and she once again pulled out all the stops against a Top 20 team.

The Cornhuskers are trending in the wrong direction, but this will still go down as a ranked win for Iowa. No one can take away Wright's 24 point performance as head coach Jan Jensen had her on the court for 39 minutes. Wright was a stellar 11-12 from the free throw line which certainly helped her point total, but she also drilled a trio of three-pointers.

Taylor Stremlow's Eight Assists

8 ball, corner pocket. 😏@StremlowTaylor recorded 🎱 points & dished out career-high 🎱 assists! pic.twitter.com/JjjNdfFMf0
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) January 2, 2026

Coming off a freshman season where she averaged 14.4 minutes per game, Stremlow saw a huge uptick in her minutes once Wright went down with an injury. Now that senior guard Kylie Feuerbach is out, Stremlow was once again thrown into the starting lineup.

No one is more deserving of that spot than Stremlow. She may never lead the team in scoring, but she's one of the best facilitating guards in the entire country. That was on full display against a Nebraska team that simply couldn't contain her.

Stremlow finished with eight points, eight asssits, three steals, and a pair of rebounds. Those eight assists are a new career high after she had seven earlier in the year against both Lindenwood and Fairfield. No offense to those teams, but they're a huge step down from Nebraska so it's fantastic to see Stremlow on her A-Game against a feared opponent in the B1G.

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