IOWA CITY, Iowa – You had to figure that life on the court without Caitlin Clark and her veteran supporting cast would be difficult at times for the Iowa women’s basketball team, and that has certainly proven to be the case, and maybe even more than some had expected.

Iowa fell to Nebraska 87-84 in overtime on Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, extending its losing streak to four games, which hasn’t happened since 2016.

Iowa only lost five games overall last season with all-everything point guard Caitlin Clark leading the way, the fifth loss coming in the national championship game, which Iowa was playing in for the second straight season.

The incredible happenings in each of the past two seasons under former head coach Lisa Bluder, who retired this past May, and the impact that Clark had on and off the court is the stuff of legends, and something that Hawkeye fans probably won’t ever see again.

But with that unprecedented success comes the daunting task of trying to sustain an incredibly high standard, and right now Iowa is failing to meet that challenge under first-year head coach Jan Jensen.

The Iowa players fought and scrapped until the bitter end against Nebraska, but they also blew an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter, missed way too many free throws, 13 to be exact, and they shot just 29.6 percent from 3-point range, making 8-of-27 attempts.

Iowa had six players that scored in double figures, led by junior forward Hannah Stuelke with 16 points. Iowa also grabbed 42 rebounds, including 16 by Stuelke.

Freshman point guard Aaliyah Guyton came off the bench to score 14 points and dish out four assists, while senior guard Syd Affolter scored 10 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Junior forward Hannah Stuelke (left) and Lucy Olsen share a moment on the court. Photo courtesy of hawkeyesports.com.

Senior guard Kylie Feuerbach scored 13 points after having been held scoreless in last Sunday’s 74-67 loss to Indiana, while graduate guard Lucy Olsen made some huge baskets down the stretch and finished with 14 points and seven assists, and yet, it wasn’t enough.

“The road is always going to have some obstacles,” Jensen said on the Learfield post-game radio show. “And I told them, look at them as stumbling blocks or stepping stones. We’re just going to have to really dig deep and just keep stepping because we had this game tonight and we blew an (11) point lead and could have iced it with some free throws.

“That’s hard. That chips away at your confidence, so I’m going to have to watch the film and kind of study different combinations and what went wrong there. Obviously, I can’t shoot the free throws, but I’ll have to do some of the other things.”

Iowa certainly had its chances to win Thursday’s game, including in the final seconds of regulation.

Nebraska freshman Britt Prince made two free throws to even the score at 77 with 2.8 seconds left to play.

Jensen then drew up a play during a timeout and it worked beautifully as Guyton had a clear path for a layup, but her shot rolled off the rim, pushing the game into overtime.

Nebraska started overtime on a 7-1 scoring run, all of its points coming on free throws.

Iowa still had a chance to force a second overtime until Affolter’s shot from 3-point range bounced off the rim as time expired.

Iowa still has 11 conference games remaining, and now will head to the West Coast for games against Oregon and Washington on Sunday and next Wednesday, respectively.

“You know, turn the page. Obviously, that’s one we definitely would have liked to get, especially at home,” Affolter said. “But I think we battled all the way until end. That was a very back-and-forth game, and all of our losses have been very winnable games and that’s the frustrating part.

“But we’re going out to Oregon and Washington, and we’re going to battle over there and give it our best shot. And we’re going to come to practice tomorrow and get better.”