The Iowa women’s basketball team regrouped after a slow start against Robert Morris to improve 8-1.
By Mario Williams
The Iowa women’s basketball team put a sloppy first quarter behind it to tally a 69-50 win over Robert Morris on Sunday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Morris came out strong in the first quarter, keeping fans in Carver-Hawkeye silent. Only three minutes into the contest, Morris was up 10-0 with a few lay-ups and back-to-back shots from way downtown.
Iowa missed a number of opportunities from behind the arc, shooting 10 percent and 36.7 from the field in the first quarter. Morris’s athletic ability and shooting in the first period proved that they would walk away with a win.
“It’s not a one-quarter game, it’s a four-quarter game,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “So, I don’t feel like we panicked, I don’t feel like anybody went crazy or anything; we just thought we’re going to start chipping away at this.”
Iowa got things rolling before halftime when freshman Tania Davis put the squad up with its first lead of the game, 29-28. The point guard had 4 points and 1 rebound in the second quarter.
Freshman Megan Gustafson also came off the bench and added some spark for the Hawkeyes when she tied the game with a pair of free throws.
“At this point, I think that my role is to provide that spark for us, when we can’t get out and push like we usually want to,” Davis said. “I just try to get it out, push, get open lay-ups, and get open 3s.”
The Hawks scored 17 points in the second quarter and 10 of those came from the paint. Coming into the game, Morris had only played zone 15 percent of the time, although against the Hawks, it played zone for an entire 40 minutes, something Bluder hadn’t expected.
After halftime, though, the Hawkeyes played “Iowa” basketball. The result was a 51.6 field-goal percentage in the second half, and they tallied 11 assists and only 6 turnovers.
Bluder wanted her team to come out and push and get higher-percentage shots, and the Hawks achieved that in the second half.
“We got much better looks in the second half going inside to cutters, to Megan, to going inside and getting those higher-percentage shots,” Bluder said. “So, I think we have to do that, especially against a zone that spreads out as much as theirs does.”
Morris jumped on the scoreboard early, but Iowa slowed its game down. Morris had averaged 75 points per game coming into the matchup, yet only wound up scoring 50 points. Iowa’s defense was active, forcing 17 turnovers and snaking out 6 steals.
“We relaxed in the second half and were able to get some looks inside,” Gustafson said.
Iowa’s best quarter of the game was the fourth, and that sealed the deal. The Hawks outscored Morris, 22-9, opened up a double-digit lead 51-41, and came out of the gate on a 11-0 run.
Next, Iowa will head to Ames on Friday to compete against Iowa State in an Iowa Corn Cy-Hawk Series matchup.
“We’re going to stress to our team just how big of a game this is,” junior Ally Disterhoft said. “We’re excited for this game, it’s a huge opportunity for us, and we’re going to go out there and just give it our all.”
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