Sarah Strong explodes with career-high 39 points to lead No. 2 UConn over No. 10 Iowa

After finishing last season as the consensus player of the year , Sarah Strong is picking up where she left off.

In a top-10 matchup between No. 2 UConn and No. 10 Iowa, the junior Huskies forward exploded for 39 points on the way to a confident 91-79 win over the Hawkeyes. The number surpassed Strong's own career high by a significant margin.

Strong went 15-for-26 from the field, sinking five 3-pointers while also tallying 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. She played 37 minutes in the matchup, and surpassed her previous career-high (29) halfway through the third quarter.

The 39-point score line is the most scored by a UConn player against a top-10 team since 2000, per ESPN . Strong also becomes the fourth Division I player to ever hit that state line — 35-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and 5-plus 3-pointers — against a top 10 team in the 2000s, per ESPN.

Alongside Strong's dominant performance, sophomore forward Blanca Quiñonez pitched in 21 points off the bench, going 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Hawkeyes guard Chazadi "Chit-Chat" Wright led Iowa in points with a 23-point, 5-assist performance.

Unlike some other Power Four programs, UConn has front-loaded its schedule with ranked opponents, before starting (easier) Big East play next month. Before Sunday's game against No. 10 Iowa, the Huskies played No. 5 Michigan on Thursday, a game that ended in a Wolverines upset .

Upcoming matchups include No. 18 Ohio State and No. 7 Louisville next week, No. 1 South Carolina and No. 4 Duke later this month, and No. 13 Notre Dame and No. 9 LSU in December. (All of those rankings, including UConn's No. 2, are likely to change when the latest AP poll comes out on Monday.)