By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Almost every free throw Lucy Olsen took went through the net.

There weren’t a lot of people around to see it.

Long after Iowa’s 87-84 loss to Nebraska on Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Olsen was back out on the court, shooting free throws as one of the Hawkeyes’ managers rebounded for her.

A couple missed, but more than a few gave a familiar net snap that could be heard over the racket of the clean-up crew.

None of them counted, of course, on a night when just one point at the right time would have made a difference.

Olsen has been quite a good free-throw shooter in her career — she is a career 76.3% shooter, including 80.7% last season at Villanova. She’s a 75.4% shooter this season for the Hawkeyes, although that number took a hit against the Huskers.

Olsen was 1 of 6 in free throws, all coming in the last 5 ½ minutes of the fourth quarter, when Iowa saw a 64-53 lead disappear as the Huskers rallied to force overtime.

She wasn’t the only one with a case of the clangs in those final minutes — Sydney Affolter went 1 of 2. Kylie Feuerbach went 3 of 4.

So of course, when the Huskers won the game in overtime, all of their points came off free throws.

“I mean, you’re all writing a different story if every one of them hits one of those (missed) free throws,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said.

The story, though, is that Iowa has lost four consecutive games for the first time in nine seasons. This was the second one lost at the line — the Hawkeyes were 8 of 17 in a 62-57 loss at Illinois last week.

At 12-6 overall, and 2-5 in the Big Ten and staring up at a lot of teams ahead of them, the Hawkeyes leave for their two-game Western time zone swing to Oregon and Washington trying to avoid a longer skid and avoid this season getting away from them.

“I don’t think we’ve lost two games in a row since we’ve been here,” said Affolter as she sat next to teammate Hannah Stuelke in the post-game press conference. “It’s definitely something we’re learning through too, but we have to take it game by game. We can’t look back on a loss and hang our heads on that. We have to come in the gym, get better, get extra shots, have extra free throws, all that. So we got to flip the page and be ready for the next one.”

The defeats to Maryland, Illinois, Indiana and now the Huskers were “very winnable games, that’s the frustrating part,” Affolter said.

“I don’t care if you’re the Golden State Warriors, you lose four in a row, it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge,” Jensen said. “I’ve seen a lot of fight in them. But I think it wears on them.”

The box score in front of Jensen had a lot of good numbers. Six Hawkeyes scored in double figures — Stuelke (16 points, 16 rebounds) and Affolter (10 points, 13 rebounds) had double-doubles. The Hawkeyes had 24 assists on 30 field goals.

The free-throw number might as well have been in bold type with a bigger font.

“If you look at every category here … I mean, I’m happy with every category except free throws,” Jensen said.

Up 11 in the fourth quarter, though, the job has to be finished, and the Hawkeyes couldn’t do it. They still had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation time — Aaliyah Guyton missed a layup at the buzzer — and had a chance to tie the game at the end of overtime — Affolter missed a 3-pointer.

And neither shot would have been necessary if one free throw — one measly, miserable free throw — had gone through the rim instead of rolling off.

It’s the reality for the Hawkeyes now that even the simple plays that can build a win seem almost unachievable.

“I think it’s a lot of little things,” Stuelke said. “We’ll have lapses here and there and where we lose focus, or we miss an assignment. And they’re getting smaller, obviously, but we need to limit that as much as possible.”

Jensen made another lineup switch, moving Stuelke to the ‘5’, where she has thrived over her career. That, though, presents another problem, which means less minutes for Addison O’Grady and freshman Ava Heiden, who didn’t play at all on Thursday. O’Grady had a solid game with 10 points, but Heiden has been one of the best post defenders with 15 blocked shots.

In a season when Jensen, in her first year as head coach, has tried to find the right combinations, one solution seems to present another problem. The push-and-pull still can’t be solved.

“They’re really a great group, and they’re doing most things right,” Jensen said. “I keep telling them, we’ve got to create a break. I’m not one that just is going to depend on how I want to catch a break. We need to create them. And that’s one thing we haven’t done yet.”

Photo: Iowa’s Aaliyah Guyton shoots a free throw in Thursday’s game against Nebraska. (Brian Ray/hawkeyesports.com)