By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

Hannah Stuelke’s right elbow is the biggest question for Iowa’s women’s basketball team heading into Friday’s Big Ten Tournament opener.

Stuelke was injured in Iowa’s 82-78 win over Illinois on February 26 in the Hawkeyes’ final regular-season home game, but her availability for this weekend and beyond is still questionable, coach Jan Jensen said on Wednesday.

“It’s her strong hand, her dominant arm,” Jensen said. “So we’re just trying to give it as much rest to see what it feels like. But there’s a lot more than just the pain tolerance. If you can’t move it, you can’t move it. If it can, you can do some things with it. So we’re just trying to give it every minute.”

Stuelke averages 13.9 points and 8.7 rebounds, and losing a player with her experience — she played on Iowa’s Final Four teams in 2023 and 2024 — is something the Hawkeyes don’t want with what is coming up. They are the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament — they will play either Michigan State or Illinois in Friday’s 5:30 p.m. (CST) semifinal in Indianapolis —  and they’ll likely will be a high seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“To do what we want, to continue to do it, it gets a little bit tougher if we don’t have Hannah,” Jensen said.

Stuelke played 30 minutes in the game where she was injured, then didn’t play at all in Sunday’s 81-52 win at Wisconsin. Jensen said the adrenaline from playing helped Stuelke finish the game, but the pain and swelling in the hours showed the seriousness of the injury.

“It’s a pretty severe elbow injury,” Jensen said. “The torque of it, the swelling, the range of motion, the pain, and there’s the length of time of probably what really takes an injury like this to feel better better. She has not practiced, and she’s trying to figure out when to try it.”

Journey Houston started in Stuelke’s place on Sunday and scored eight points. Teagan Mallegni also saw minutes at the ‘4’ and finished with 10 points. Houston would be the player to start if Stuelke can’t go, a big situation for a freshman whose minutes have increased throughout the season.

“She’s just really been a great bright spot this whole year, and has just played hard — she comes in and she just makes a difference because she plays so, so hard,” Jensen said. “So, yeah, I’m very excited about her being able to step in. But what made our team good is you have one of the premier players in the conference and one of the premier players in the country. So that’s a lot to put on Houston. I’ll go to bat with Journey Houston all day long, for sure. But that’s a tough ask if we don’t have Hannah healthy.”

Photo: Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke reacts after scoring in the February 26 win over Illinois. (Iowa Athletic Communications)