By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY — Jan Jensen’s substitution patterns were like putting dice in a Yahtzee cup, giving it a good shake, and then rolling to see what you would get.

Jensen, in her first season as Iowa’s head women’s basketball coach, knows she has a deep roster, and as the No. 21 Hawkeyes were staggering at times to keep pace with No. 18 Iowa State on Wednesday night, Jensen searched — and kept searching — for the lineup that would finally get the Hawkeyes back into a lead that they had only held for a few seconds in the first half.

Then came the winning roll.

The combination of fifth-year guard Lucy Olsen, senior Sydney Affolter, junior Hannah Stuelke, and freshmen Taylor Stremlow and Aaliyah Guyton, played together for 2 minutes, 57 seconds in the fourth quarter, and turned the game into another Iowa win over Iowa State .

The Hawkeyes’ 75-69 win, the program’s ninth consecutive over the Cyclones at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, was built in the fourth quarter, by a combination that hit big shots and kept the Cyclones from scoring.

That group of five came together at the 6:31 mark with Iowa trailing 59-56, and when Jensen sent in Kylie Feuerbach to replace Guyton with 3:34 to play, the Hawkeyes were up 64-61.

There were so many big plays in that time:

• Affolter scored on back-to-back layups in a span of 39 seconds.

• Stuelke drove for a layup that gave Iowa a 62-61 lead with 4:23 left, the Hawkeyes’ first lead since the second quarter.

• Olsen scored and was fouled.

But the biggest play during that time came from Jensen.

The Hawkeyes were having trouble with Iowa State center Audi Crooks all night. Crooks, who had 31 points and 10 rebounds, was 14 of 22 from the field, scoring with little trouble against whoever and whatever Iowa was throwing at her.

Jensen, though, went with a smaller lineup. Affolter moved to the ‘4’, with Stuelke at the ‘5’ with the responsibility of guarding Crooks.

Crooks ended up with just four fourth-quarter points, all in the final 28 seconds with the Hawkeyes in command.

“What’s unique about coaching is you can go in and you have a pretty good game plan, but I think you really have to read (the game),” Jensen said. “You’ve got to read it and feel it. And Syd hasn’t played the ‘4’ this whole year, but I just had a sense that Audi, with the size-for-size, we were kind of losing that battle, and I wanted to throw it off and give her a different look with Hannah.

“Syd’s our dog. She looked at me, and I said, ‘You can do the ‘4.’ Get in.’”

The roll of that dice was perfect.

“We said after the game that we were down for a lot of the game, but we were never out,” Affolter said. “We never thought we were going to lose that game. And just having that mentality that, you know, no matter what the score is, we’re competing until the buzzer hits. And I thought we did that really well, and just that point in the game (the fourth quarter) was really fun.”

But finding a lineup to counter the Cyclones wasn’t that easy. Jensen played 13 lineup combinations in the first quarter, as Iowa State took control of the game early.

Seven lineups in the second quarter. Nine in the third. Combination after combination, and often it felt like wheels spinning in place.

Jensen is learning plenty about her team from the perspective as a head coach after so many years as Lisa Bluder’s top assistant.

She learned a lot after Saturday’s 78-68 neutral-court loss to Tennessee, the Hawkeyes’ first defeat of the season.

A loss can provide its own textbook, Jensen said.

“What we learned a lot (against) Tennessee is we learned how everybody lost,” Jensen said. “And I think when you learn how everybody loses, then you can kind of know what you have moving forward. And after I watched everybody kind of adapt and turn the page pretty quickly with a little bit of a chip, I thought, all right, I think we’ve got something for this rivalry.”

“It’s four quarters of basketball, and every quarter is different,” Affolter said. “We start 0-0 at the beginning. I thought we just executed down the stretch (in this game), and that was really important. And I think that’s where we fell off in the Tennessee game. So I’m glad for future games, we can rely on that.”

The Hawkeyes are a mixture of old and new, those remaining from an era that included back-to-back runs to the national championship game and those who have come in, whether it’s a veteran like Olsen or a feisty group of four freshmen — Stremlow, Guyton, Teagan Mallegni and Ava Heiden — who quickly adapted to their roles.

“They’ve just really been a joy,” Jensen said. “And I think they just, every one of them, just leaned into this era. They were so proud to be Hawks, the new kids coming, the returners, everybody held (together)and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. And listen, no game is easy.”

Jensen pointed out the path the Hawkeyes have already travelled and will travel — the wins over Virginia Tech and Kansas, this win, the loss to Tennessee, the crucible of the Big Ten schedule that’s coming.

“I think I’ve done a pretty good job trying to stay in my lane and keeping them in their lane,” Jensen said. “Like, every game is really fun because we’re doing it together. And I know that sounds coach-ish or coach-eze or speak whatever, but I think they do that really well.”

Finding the right “together” every game isn’t going to be easy, certainly not with what the Hawkeyes have ahead.

Jensen will just keep rolling the dice, and see what combination comes up a winner.

Photo: Iowa’s Lucy Olsen (center) and Kylie Feuerbach (left) celebrate after Wednesday’s win over Iowa State. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)