By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — It’s time for Iowa’s women’s basketball team to start stacking wins.

January is about to ease into February, and March isn’t that far away, and for the moment it’s probably wise to start thinking about the postseason resumé.

The Hawkeyes came into Tuesday’s game against Northwestern with a NET ranking of 36th. They are 0-5 in Quad 1 games, 4-2 in Quad 2 games, and a nonconference strength of schedule ranking of 109.

It is a rather bubble-ish resumé, but the key right now for the Hawkeyes is just to win, and see how it counts later.

Which is why coach Jan Jensen wasn’t about to do a full dissection of the 85-80 win over the Wildcats at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

The Hawkeyes (14-7 overall, 4-6 Big Ten) won for the second time after a five-game losing streak. There was a lot of traffic ahead of them in the Big Ten standings as they began the second half of conference play and the only way to get through it is to win, and keep winning.

So, maybe the win over the Wildcats (7-12, 0-8) wasn’t one to hang on the wall, but it’s one Jensen will take.

“I think it would be an error for me to come in and critique any win,” Jensen said. “It’s been  disappointing when we’ve lost some of those (games), but this team has shown up. I’ve always told them they’re closer than they’ve been farther away. We have been a possession (away) in everyone that we’ve lost. So, yeah, do I wish it would look like, ‘Oh, man, it’s beautiful and pretty’?. Absolutely. But I’m telling you, what we are learning is that maybe the not-as-pretty wins are certainly better than a pretty loss.”

The Hawkeyes had a 12-point lead evaporate to just a three-point margin with 11 seconds left before Hannah Stuelke clinched the win with two free throws.

Stuelke finished with a season-high 26 points in her first game back after missing Iowa’s trip west to play Oregon and Washington because of a concussion. She’ll be the first to tell you that free-throw shooting has never been a strong part of her game — she is a 61.2% shooter in her career, but a career-high 69.6% this season thanks to her offseason work as she came back from offseason knee surgery.

“I think it’s everything, especially knowing my history with the free throws, my whole life history, actually,” Stuelke said of hitting the clinchers. “I’ve always kind of struggled, and that’s all I worked on this summer with my injury. So, yeah, I just am more confident in myself, and my teammates are confident in me.”

Being left behind while the Hawkeyes made their swing through the Northwest bothered Stuelke.

“Yeah, it was really weird watching them on the TV and yelling at the TV, because I’ve never experienced that before,” Stuelke said, laughing. “But I missed the girls a lot, and it’s just really nice to be back out on the court with them.”

The Hawkeyes were better at the free-throw line as well. They were 18 of 20 for the game, 12 of 12 in the fourth quarter, big numbers considering the last time they had a home game, they missed 13 free throws in an 87-84 loss to Nebraska. That was the fourth defeat in a losing streak when everything seems to become self-fulfilling.

“Free throws are a funny thing,” Jensen said. “Confidence is a funny thing, and it can be contagious one way or the other. You can be rolling along and all of a sudden you hit that spot. And I think everything just got a little tight back then, especially the free throws.

“I really challenged them, because I told them, I said, ‘You’ve got to change something. It’s like, what’s the definition of insanity? doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So I think they all kind of changed the routine, and I’ve tried different things that put a little bit more pressure on them.”

The Hawkeyes, Jensen said, are in an era of progression. Her rotation seems to have settled in and everybody seems to be figuring out their roles.

Maybe beating the Wildcats wasn’t a win that will grab the NCAA selection committee’s attention in March, but that didn’t matter to Jensen.

“I think a lot of people, they don’t watch five to seven films (on opponents),” Jensen said. “You’re not in the trenches. … I mean, look at us. Man, we’re pretty young. We’re trying to figure it out. We have confidence. I’m thrilled that we’ve shown some growth.

“I’m just a really big believer. You just respect every opponent. (Northwestern) had Indiana on the ropes, they lost by four. They were up 17 on Minnesota, a team that was  ranked in the top 25, and they blew the lead. They just haven’t found that way. Whatever is on the front of that jersey, to me, it just says, ‘Tough opponent, Big Ten, one of the best conferences in the country.’”

The chances to put some bold ink on that resumé are coming. No. 4 USC comes to town on Sunday, then the Hawkeyes play at Minnesota and at Nebraska, two teams receiving votes in the Associated Press poll. No. 1 UCLA and No. 8 Ohio State are also still ahead.

This was just a win, and one the Hawkeyes needed.

“I want to keep getting better,” Jensen said. “We certainly need to. Obviously, we have a heck of an opponent coming up. But this particular team, we need to definitely improve on the areas where we’re not great, but we need to celebrate what we do well. If this team can get a win, I’m on board, and I’m not going to give it a style-point critique just yet.”

Photo: Iowa coach Jan Jensen celebrates during the Hawkeyes’ 85-80 win over Northwestern on Tuesday. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)