The Hawkeyes have now lost three in a row.
By Jake Mosbach
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A career afternoon from Christina Buttenham wasn’t enough for the Iowa women’s basketball team on Sunday in West Lafayette as the Hawkeyes fell to Purdue, 90-73.
With their third loss in a row, the Hawkeyes (13-7, 3-5 Big Ten) fell to eighth-place in the conference standings, tied with Rutgers, Michigan, and Penn State.
Buttenham, a sophomore forward, netted 14 points, a career high, to go along with 3 rebounds and an assist. Junior Ally Disterhoft was the Hawkeyes’ leading scorer, grabbing 21 points and 4 rebounds.
Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder praised Buttenham for her performance, one of the few points of optimism on Sunday afternoon.
“Christina played a nice game, and she was one of the bright spots,” Bluder said in a release. “It was nice to see the fight she came in with.”
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Other scorers for the Hawkeyes included Tania Davis (14 points), Chase Coley (7), Megan Gustafson (7), Whitney Jennings (7), and Alexa Kastanek (3).
Purdue’s April Wilson was the game’s leading scorer, earning a double-double with 24 points and 12 assists.
The Boilermakers had a stranglehold on the game from the tip-off, trailing just once in the contest. They led 28-15 after the first quarter and 43-40 at the half.
Iowa kept the deficit manageable throughout the third quarter, trailing 69-65 after three quarters. However, a 21-8 Purdue run was too much for head coach the Hawkeyes.
The Boilermakers bested Iowa in almost every statistical category, shooting 58.6 percent from the field, 75 percent from the free-throw line, and 58.3 percent from beyond the arc.
Iowa shot 52 percent from the field, just 68.2 percent from the charity stripe, and 46.2 percent from 3-point territory. The Hawks were out-rebounded 34-20.
Cold shooting in the second half doomed the Hawks, Bluder said.
“We were 5-for-5 from 3-point range in the first half and 1-for-8 in the second half,” Bluder said in the release. “That was a big story of this game.”
Turnovers were once again an Achilles heel for Iowa, as they have been throughout the three-game losing streak; the Hawkeyes turned the ball over 19 times. In the past three games, they’ve amassed 49 turnovers.
Early in the first quarter, the Boilermakers used a 10-0 run to jump ahead 14-4. The run featured six Hawkeye turnovers.
“We turned the ball over six times, and it resulted in high-percentage shots for them,” Bluder said in the release.
The alarming number of turnovers is stemming from a lack of focus, she said, focus that needs to return if the Hawkeyes want to improve.
“A lot of our problems are between our ears right now,” Bluder said in the release. “We have to get that figured out before any magic play is going to work. We’re back at home Thursday … hopefully, we’ll take a little pride in to this game and want to defend our home court.”
The Hawks will attempt to get back on the winning track when they host Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
