By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY — There is no question that Iowa can compete with some of the best women’s basketball teams in the nation, which is a good thing to carry into March.

There is some question over whether the Hawkeyes can make enough plays to beat them, and that’s something they don’t want to carry into March.

The 67-65 loss to No. 3 UCLA on Sunday was another one of those games that Iowa coach Jan Jensen called a “coulda-woulda-shoulda.”

Could have won? Sure.

Would have won? Well, if a couple of plays in the last few seconds had gone their way…

Should have won? Probably.

Didn’t win? Yes.

Actually, this was a coulda-woulda-shoulda week, throwing in the 86-78 overtime loss at Ohio State on Monday. Win both, and there’s a couple of nice bullet points on a postseason resumé and a few steps up the crowded Big Ten standings.

But the Hawkeyes lost both, and so they’re tied for 11th place in the conference at 8-8 with two games remaining, which means the team that has won the Big Ten Tournament the last three seasons likely is going to have to go five-wins-in-five-days in Indianapolis to add a fourth ring.

Iowa’s Big Ten losses have come by an average of 4.5 points. Four of those defeats have been by three points or less.

“I told them I’m proud of them,” Jensen said. “But you know, until we get collectively kind of tired of really coming that close, we can’t flip some of those games. But, man, they battle. They battle. I’m so proud of how they battle. Resilient.”

Resilient, yes, but the Hawkeyes (18-9 overall) put themselves into that position by letting a 12-point third-quarter lead slip away, a fade that slowly sucked the energy out of what was an ear-shattering Carver-Hawkeye Arena as Iowa had control over a UCLA team that has lost just once all season.

“I feel like we have been so close these last two games, and I know that we can play with anybody,” guard Taylor McCabe said. “It’s just going to come down to how we execute at the end of games, and our shot selection probably needs to be a little bit better as well. But we still have got plenty of year left, and I know that we are building confidence every day.”

The Hawkeyes will remember the last six seconds of this game for a while. They had tied the game at 65 when Lucy Olsen, fouled on a 3-point attempt, made all three of her free throws.

Olsen got a big hug from Jensen as she came off the court as the Bruins called timeout.

“My free throws obviously haven’t been great this season,” said Olsen, a 71.4% free-throw shooter. “So I was proud of myself in that moment. I thought that was like, ‘All right, you hit the free throws, so we’re gonna win this game.”

Out of the timeout, UCLA inbounded the ball to Elina Aarnisalo, who dribbled to her left. Olsen, chasing Aarnisalo, ran into the screen set by Angela Dugalic and fell to the court. And as she fell, she tripped Aarnisalo. Official Felicia Grinter, standing the closest to the play, called a foul on Olsen.

Aarnisalo then hit both free throws.

“I just got caught on the screen accidentally,” said Olsen, who led the Hawkeyes with 17 points despite making just 5 of 21 shots. “I got hit on a screen, so it bumped me into (Aarnisalo). I couldn’t really do anything about that. And then I just fell, and then they called a foul for me falling. So I don’t know. I guess I was not in legal guarding position, they said. So I guess it makes sense. It’s just frustrating because you just hit (the free throws) and then you send them to the line, yeah, so it’s just the frustrating end of the game, but that’s all part of it, so gotta learn from it.”

The Hawkeyes, who called timeout, got the ball at midcourt to tie the game or win it.

Jensen said the play call had three options. The first, Jensen said, was Hannah Stuelke on a quick dive off a screen from Addison O’Grady. The second option was Olsen coming around another screen for a 3-point attempt.

The final option, if Olsen wasn’t open, was going to be O’Grady from behind the arc. Jensen said O’Grady has 3-point range, although she had taken just five in her previous three seasons. O’Grady’s shot was woefully short.

“We got a look,” Jensen said. “Would have been a storybook ending, but it would have been a good play with a lucky ending.”

The Hawkeyes had spent most of the first three quarters writing an impressive storybook. They had a 16-4 run to close the first half for a 36-29 lead, and they pushed that margin to first 44-32, and then 46-34, in the third quarter.

But UCLA had its own 16-4 run to close the quarter to tie the game, erasing all of the capital Iowa had built.

“Really, it came down to the third quarter where we didn’t execute,” Jensen said. “And I told our staff, I said, I think that’s where it went (wrong) when that happened, and we just got flustered at the wrong time. But I can’t fault the effort, but today it was just bad decisions at the wrong time.”

It’s a familiar recipe of how “woulda-coulda-shoulda” has become “didn’t” for the Hawkeyes all season.

Photo: Iowa coach Jan Jensen reacts to a call in Sunday’s loss to UCLA. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)