Iowa comes back in the fourth quarter and wins in overtime.
By Rod Engblom
The Iowa women’s basketball team beat Western Illinois, 96-81, in a dramatic overtime victory after the Hawkeyes tied up the game in the last seconds of the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Whitney Jennings hit a 3 to tie the game with four seconds left in the fourth quarter, sending the game into overtime.
“It’s a play that we worked on in practice leading up to this game,” Jennings said. “Lex caught it at the top of the key, and she noticed that she didn’t have the shot. She put it on the floor, drew the defense, and kicked it to me.”
The Hawkeyes gave up a 13-point lead they had at half after being outscored 26-14 in the third quarter.
With 1:26 left in the fourth, the Hawkeyes were down by 4 but were able to come back with a key lay-up by Ally Disterhoft with 1:07 left and eventually the 3 by Jennings to tie it up.
“We have confidence in everybody on our team to step up and hit those big shots,” Disterhoft said. “I think over time, it just kind of demonstrates that we have everybody firing on all cylinders, and that’s when we really put that team basketball element into play.”
Despite the close game, junior Alexa Kastanek, sophomore Chase Coley, and freshman Megan Gustafson finished the game with a career high in points along with Gustafson being 1 rebound off of a double-double.
But in the end, defense and not making their own shots from behind the arc nearly downed the Hawkeyes
“We just gave up too many 3s the second half,” head coach Lisa Bluder said. “We have 60 paint points. I just tell the players, go back to the well if something’s working, just keep going back to the well, and we got away from that in the third quarter.“
The Hawkeyes were 0-of-11 from behind the arc in the second half until Jennings hit the game-tying 3.
Western Illinois steadily increased its 3-point percentage as the game progressed, shooting 15 percent in the first quarter and 32.5 percent in the second quarter and to lights out percentages in the second half.
“I just think they heated up in 3-point range,” Bluder said. “They shot 53 percent from 3-point range in the second half. We gave up too many Euro-3s, and we gave away too many soft 3s that they were just standing there, and we did not close out hard on 3-point shooters.”
But in the end of the day if one aspect of their game isn’t working, in Iowa’s case 3-point shooting, the team has to go with the tactic what worked best for it throughout the game.
While the Hawkeyes eventually pulled away in overtime, Bluder said they strayed from their style of play.
“We got away from that in the third quarter,” she said. “We weren’t making those 3s, so then you have to go back to the inside game especially if you have the height advantage. When our posts are doing so well, why go away from that? Save the other stuff for another game.”
Follow @rodengblom on Twitter for Iowa women’s basketball news, updates, and analysis.