Indianapolis — Going into Thursday afternoon’s Big Ten Tournament game against the eighth-seeded Michigan Wolverines, the highest scoring offensive output for the Hawkeye women’s basketball team in Big Ten play was 85 points.
So when Iowa upended Michigan 97-85 on Thursday, it came as a surprise. After all, the mark now stands as the third-highest points total in Big Ten Tournament history.
The offensive explosion featured five Hawkeyes scoring in double digits. Freshman forward Megan Gustafson was the Hawks’ leading scorer, dropping 25 points, a career high, to go with 10 rebounds.
Junior Ally Disterhoft raked in 22 points, Chase Coley scored 20, Whitney Jennings had 11, and Tania Davis produced 10.
Disterhoft, who played all 40 minutes of Thursday’s game, said after the game patience was the key to the team’s best offensive game of the year.
“We just did a great job of moving the ball and taking what they were giving us,” Disterhoft said. “I don’t think we forced many shots at all …when they were extending on our 3-point shooters we got the ball inside, and when they were sagging, we hit those 3s.”
Collectively, the team shot an impressive 67 percent from beyond the arc (8-for-12). Disterhoft contributed four of those, finishing with a flawless stat line (4-for-4).
Freshman guard Davis collected a double-double, dishing out a career-high 10 assists to go with her 10 points. The 2015 Michigan “Miss Basketball” was all over the court Thursday afternoon, hitting acrobatic shots and completing near perfect cross-court passes.
Davis, who averages 8.1 points per game, said she could sense before the contest even started that the team’s offense would show up Thursday but almost eclipsing the 100-point mark wasn’t a goal.
“[The team] was feeling good,” Davis said. “We woke up feeling good, and we knew that it was going to be a good day for us. But 97 points are awesome.”
Heading to the fourth quarter, Iowa had a 70-62 advantage. For the Hawks, the fourth quarter hasn’t been too kind this season. Blown leads and low-scoring efforts have plagued the team. That wasn’t the case on Thursday.
The 27-point fourth quarter effort secured a victory, and head coach Lisa Bluder said the strong performance late in the game is a sign that the team is maturing.
“Sometimes this year when we were not finishing games well, we’d have a lead, and we’d come down and put up a quick shot instead of a good shot,” Bluder said. “I think now we’re just starting to understand clock management a little better.”
Now, the Hawks will switch their focus to the tournament’s top-seeded Maryland, which they’ll face at 11 a.m. today. The Terrapins sport the second-ranked scoring defense in the Big Ten, allowing just 60.6 points per game.
But Davis said the offensive mindset for the Hawkeyes wouldn’t change to combat one of the stingiest defenses in the country.
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