By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Ashley Sofilkanich stood near the Michigan basket, hands on hips, head down, a sign that she had enough of Iowa’s Ava Heiden.

The Wolverines had called timeout, the sellout crowd of Carver-Hawkeye Arena was at its loudest all day, and Sofilkanich had just taken the final thrust of what Iowa coach Jan Jensen called Heiden’s “stab and twist” moment.

The 62-44 win by the 13th-ranked Hawkeyes on Sunday afternoon was punctuated by Heiden’s 24 points, 10 rebounds, and a furious battle of forearms and elbows, swats and claws, and words and gestures with Sofilkanich, who spent the 22 minutes she was on the court fighting with Heiden to such an extreme that officials finally stepped in and told them to dial it back a notch.

Heiden’s response to the provocation was something that maybe isn’t that unusual for the sophomore center.

“Sometimes,” Heiden said, “it slips out a little bit.”

That was fine with Jensen.

“I think, you know, that was a big growth step for her,” Jensen said. “That bad-ass kick-ass mentality, you kind of have to have that.”

Heiden’s feistiness made Jensen recall something that one of her favorite posts, Megan Gustafson, once said in a huddle during a game.

Gustafson, an All-American and national player of the year during her time with the Hawkeyes, was usually quiet with the occasional punctuations of celebration, but one moment stuck with Jensen.

“Greatest competitor, the sweetest,” Jensen said of Gustafson. “We were talking (about) how to manage the clock. (Coach) Lisa (Bluder) wrapped up, and all of the sudden Megan goes, ‘We are going to stab and twist.’ Everybody was like, ‘What?’ Megan so violently said, ‘We’re just stabbing and twisting.’ 

“And I think there’s something that just clicks over sometimes. I’m seeing a little bit of that in Ava, a little bit of that ‘stab and twist.’”

It’s part of the evolution, Jensen said, of being a post player.

“I think you kind of have to grow into it,” Jensen said. “You have to become good, and then you start to take the punches of frustration, and then you either take it, like, ‘I got fouled,’ or kind of give it back. And I think she’s finding that fine line of the competitiveness spirit of the great ones.”

Heiden understands.

“Butting heads always happens with posts, because we’re just really physical,” she said. “It was just playing basketball.”

Heiden had just four first-half points on 1-of-6 shooting. She wasn’t feeling well to start the game, Jensen said, and then getting consistently battered didn’t help.

It’s why Jensen told her during a timeout in the second quarter that she would try to get her some rest, but she also needed to attack when she was on the court.

Heiden’s second half was 20 points on 10-of-11 shooting. That’s attacking, and Sofilkanich was the target.

Iowa led 46-40 with 6:29 left before going on a 12-2 run in which Heiden had eight points. Her basket with 4:59 to go put the Hawkeyes up 50-40, but after she scored Sofilkanich swiped at her face, and Heiden swiped back.

That’s when the officials stepped in, listened to both players plead their case, and then told them, as Heiden put it, “to play inside the rules.”

“The refs are doing their job,” she said. “And I try to be as polite to them as I can.”

Heiden blocked a 3-point attempt by Syla Swords on Michigan’s next possession, then came down and had another encounter with Sofilkanich. This time, Heiden faked right and spun left for an open layup as Sofilkanich found nothing but air and then court on her fall.

When Heiden scored again with 3:33 to play, Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico called a timeout, with Sofilkanich staring at the court in front of the Wolverines’ bench, shaken and spun into dejection.

“She really answered in that fourth quarter,” Jensen said of Heiden.

Heiden had completed her third consecutive double-double, an impressive closing stretch in the season’s dwindling days.

The Hawkeyes and Wolverines finished the day with the same records, 22-5 overall and 13-3 in the Big Ten, tied for second place heading into the final week of the conference’s regular season. They also shared a lot of feistiness in 40 minutes that went beyond the Heiden-Sofilkanich main event.

Iowa’s defense held Michigan to its lowest point total of the season.

“Two gritty teams,” Jensen said with the admiration that comes from a coach that knew her team had a little more salt to it than the opponent. “We were both going at it, and we were going to take the win any way you could get it. And when everybody was diving and tying everybody up and banging a little bit. I just think it was two really, really, hard-working teams.

“And I just love that.”

That love for what Heiden did, the fight to claim total possession of the post, was just as great for Jensen.

“You can do it with class and you can do it with confidence,” Jensen said. “It doesn’t have to be arrogant or cheap, but you have to own your space.

“And I think Ava is doing a beautiful job of owning her space.”

Top photo: Iowa’s Ava Heiden (right) reacts after scoring in Sunday’s game against Michigan. (John Gaines Photography)