The Iowa women’s basketball team opened Big Ten play with a 74-68 win over Nebraska.

By Ian Murphy
[email protected]

The Iowa women’s basketball team withstood a second-half onslaught from Nebraska to win the first game of the conference slate, 74-68, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Nebraska nearly rallied from a 16-point third-quarter deficit, closing the gap to 3 points with 5:58 to play and again with 17 seconds left.

The Huskers opened the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to cut the lead, but the Hawkeyes stretched it to back 8 on several occasions. A similar late-game run saw the Huskers climb back.

Natalie Romeo capped the second run with a 3-pointer for the Huskers to put the game within striking distance, but Iowa’s Chase Coley sealed the victory with a pair of free throws.

“We knew that they were going to make a run at us in the second half,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said in a release. “We didn’t get rattled with that.”

Nebraska’s Jessica Shepard led all scorers with 28 points. Ally Disterhoft led Iowa with 17.

Bluder said the key for the Hawkeyes was limiting the Huskers’ other threats.

“I think we did a good job defensively on every other player,” she said in a release. The Huskers usually shoot the 3 exceptionally well, she said, but the Hawkeyes limited them to 33.3 3-point percent.

Iowa out-rebounded the Huskers 51-29 and held them to a 36.6 percent shooting from the field.

The Hawkeyes improved to 11-2; they will continue Big Ten play in Carver-Hawkeye at 7 p.m. Jan. 4 against Rutgers and former iconic Hawkeye coach C. Vivian Stringer. Which is not to diminish Bluder’s becoming an iconic Hawkeye coach in her own right.

Follow @ianfromiowa on Twitter for Iowa women’s basketball news, updates, and analysis.