Hawkeyes go 3-1 after their first games on the road.
By Rod Engblom
The Iowa women’s basketball played four games over Thanksgiving break, winning three of them.
The Hawkeyes stamped an 80-65 win against Northern Iowa on Nov. 22 in Cedar Falls to start things off before winning two of three games at the Lone Star Showcase. The tournament also saw Iowa drop its first game of the season, 81-77 to George Washington in double overtime.
“We really thought we had momentum,” head coach Lisa Bluder said in a release. “We thought we did a great job to close out the regulation, and so we reminded them of Western Illinois and how we really did a great job in overtime and how overtime was our time.”
While the Hawkeyes may have had confidence going into overtime against George Washington, they simply couldn’t close the Colonials out as they did against Western Illinois.
But despite that loss, the Lone Star Showcase was a solid early season showing.
“We learned playing three games in three days is not easy,” Bluder said in a release. “This is preparation for the Big Ten Tournament, where you’re hoping to play three or four games in three or four days, and so we need to learn for that.”
Bluder also noted that playing so many games in such a short period of time makes it difficult for the team to practice and get back to the fundamentals, which has been the team’s goal.
Bluder also thought that while the Hawkeyes won their last game of the tournament, against Houston, they didn’t play up to their potential.
“I just don’t think we got better today,” Bluder said in a release. “We need to get back to an assist-first mentality, and 12 assists is so low for us. That’s just not Iowa basketball, and we want to get back to playing Iowa basketball.”
While Iowa led in scoring the entire game, it was out rebounded in the first quarter 18-9.
“We know we can rebound; we know we can box,” sophomore Ally Disterhoft said in a release. “First quarter was not a good indicator of our capabilities, but then you see the level of intensity pick up the energy pick up. We’re crashing when we’re really focusing on boxing.”
The team made an adjustment after the quarter and put up more of an effort on the glass during the rest of the game.
Despite the issues with rebounding, the team came out on top and went home with only one loss but also some things to work on.
“This team was probably the first team that had some big girls,” freshman Megan Gustafson said. “But they’re also pretty fast; that was something I definitely emphasized toward the end of the stretch to box out and crash, and that’s probably the most important game where I had to box out.”
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