Migraine keeps Hannah Stuelke out of the second half of Iowa’s NCAA tournament win over Holy Cross

Addison O’Grady negates the impact, though, with 14 points

IOWA CITY — Her head aching, Hannah Stuelke came to a halftime agreement with Coach Lisa Bluder.

“I think it was a mutual decision,” Stuelke said, on the conclusion not to play in the second half of Iowa’s 91-65 first-round NCAA women’s basketball tournament win over Holy Cross.

The Hawkeyes’ second-leading scorer and an all-Big Ten second-teamer, Stuelke confirmed afterward that she was suffering from “probably” a migraine.

“It came on during the game. I just wasn’t feeling great,” the sophomore from Cedar Rapids said.

Stuelke played 10 scoreless minutes in the first half before shutting it down for the day.

“She didn’t feel well,” Bluder said. “It wasn’t worth putting her in if we didn’t have to have her. Save her for Monday.”

That’s when the Hawkeyes (30-4) face West Virginia (25-7) in a second round; tipoff is 7 p.m. (ESPN). The winner advances to the Sweet 16 next Saturday at Albany, N.Y.

The rest of the post crew, particularly Addison O’Grady, was able to minimize the impact of Stuelke’s absence.

O’Grady hit 7 of 9 shots from the floor and scored 14 points.

“I’m just excited to provide any help I can,” she said. “You never really know. You always have to stay ready.”

Stuelke said O’Grady “played great. I’m really proud of her. It was great to see her step up.”

A.J. Ediger made both of her shots and scored four points; Sharon Goodman was 2 of 3 and tallied five.

It drew an intentional foul and the wrath of the home fans, but both Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Holy Cross’ Bronagh Power-Cassidy downplayed a second-quarter incident.

With Iowa in front 26-21, Power-Cassidy was trying to make a cut to the hoop, and gave Clark an inadvertent shot to the nose.

Clark was awarded two free throws, and made both. As she and Power-Cassidy crossed paths before the subsequent inbounds pass, they slapped hands.

“Obviously it looked kind of bad in slow motion, but it wasn’t on purpose,” Clark said. “She didn’t do that on purpose. She came up and said, ‘Sorry,’ but honestly, I’m totally OK. It was just a stinger.”