The Iowa women’s basketball team downed Drake, 89-76, on Tuesday.
By Ian Murphy
The Iowa women’s basketball team made somewhat quick work of Drake on Tuesday in Carver-Hawkeye, downing the Bulldogs, 89-76.
The Hawkeyes, with six players scoring in double figures, survived several Bulldog runs, including pushes late in the second and fourth quarters.
“I thought our second quarter was really good,” head coach Lisa Bluder said. “I think in the first half, we got some really nice looks.”
The Hawkeyes shot 54.5 percent from the field in the first half, 40 percent from behind the arc.
However, the Bulldogs climbed to within 8 in the second quarter.
But the key for the Hawkeyes was the solid post play of freshman Megan Gustafson and sophomore Chase Coley, who combined for 27 points.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs pulled as close as 9, forcing Iowa to call successive time-outs.
With five minutes left, Drake pressing, and the Hawkeyes trying to work the shot clock down, freshman Tania Davis drove to the lane and clanged a lay-up attempt off the rim, just in time to avoid a shot-clock violation.
Gustafson then put back the rebound and drew a foul to extend the lead to 11. She made the free throw to push the lead to 12.
Several times over the last five minutes, the Bulldogs made serious challenges.
Drake switched to a press and seemed to give the Hawkeyes fits, but for each Drake attack, Iowa had an equally impressive counter.
The final minute saw Drake again cut the lead to 8, but free-throw shooting bailed out the Hawkeyes. Iowa finished 7-of-8 in the final minutes at the charity stripe, which, combined with the Bulldog shooters going cold, lifted the Hawks to the victory.
“I think our team did a really good job handling adversity,” junior Ally Disterhoft said. “We’ve had some adversity this year, so I think we’re a little more experienced at handling that.”
The Hawkeyes improved to 10-2 on the season with Big Ten play looming, but the bunch had hoped to be at least at that mark through its first 12 game.
“We had some goals, nonconference goals,” Bluder said. “One of them was to go 10-2. We achieved that today.”
Follow @IanFromIowa on Twitter for Iowa women’s basketball news, updates, and analysis.
