The Iowa women’s basketball team (3-0) saw a 15-point lead slip away and had to use overtime to defeat the Dayton Flyers on Sunday. So Wednesday night, the Hawkeyes made sure to jump out to a big enough lead that they didn’t have to do it again.
The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 36-9 lead in the first 12 minutes of gameplay, then went on to beat the Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 76-39, in a blowout. The team led 49-18 at half but couldn’t continue its momentum in the second half.
“The second half we let up on the intensity,” Bluder said. “I’m disappointed in that; I think we could have really used the time to improve and get better at our game. I told the players we weren’t playing against Arkansas-Pine Bluff anymore, we were playing against ourselves, trying to make ourselves a better basketball team.”
The game was never close. It almost seemed like it was over before it began: an Iowa 7-0 lead quickly turned into a 10-0 lead, and it was all Hawkeyes from then on. By the time Golden Lions scored double-digit points for the first time, Iowa already had more than 40.
It was an interesting game for guard Sam Logic, who registered no points. The junior didn’t even attempted a shot until the five-minute mark of the second half, and she rode the bench for much of the game after her team forged such a large lead. Although the junior didn’t score, she did finish with 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
“Our energy was high,” center Bethany Doolittle said. “We were kind of having more fun with it than we did in the second half. We went with what we’re good at: sharing the ball, reading the defense … and working with our offense.”
The Hawkeyes were led in scoring by Dixon and Doolittle. Dixon seemed to be working her way out of a shooting slump. The junior had a loose trigger and scored her 17 points on 6-of-17 attempts. Doolittle continued to score in double digits, finishing with 17 points on 8-of-14 attempts, and she also had 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
“As a shooter you have to have a short memory,” Dixon said. “You have to know the next one’s going in. My coaches, my teammates have confidence in me, so that gives me confidence that the next one is going in.”
Points off of turnovers were crucial for the Hawkeyes — they scored 20 points in transition and 14 on fast breaks. The team’s offense was at its finest in the first half: Logic’s passes seemed to move like magnets, through the defenders and right into the hands of its recipient, who would promptly lay the ball in the basket.
It was a big night for Kathryn Reynolds, who made two 3-pointers and finished with 8 points. The redshirt sophomore has struggled with complications after an ACL tear during her freshman year, and Bluder called her performance one of the best parts of the second half.
“She’s had a lot of complications with her ACL,” Bluder said. “That was a tough setback. There were a lot of setbacks with it. Right now, I think she’s starting to finally feel comfortable out on the floor. Games like this will help her.”
