The Iowa women’s basketball team will host Ohio State on Thursday.

By Mario Williams
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No. 7 Ohio State will roll into town Thursday, and the Hawks have a big challenge to face. The Buckeyes are first in the conference.

Iowa’s biggest challenge will come from Ohio State guards Kelsey Mitchell and Ameryst Alston.

Mitchell averages 36.4 minutes per game and averages 25.8 points per game. Her scoring average ranks second in the Big Ten, only 3 points behind Rachel Banham of Minnesota, which Iowa will face on Feb. 15 in Minneapolis.

Ameryst also averages 18.6 points per game. Both of the players combined make up more than 50 percent of Ohio State’s scoring. The two guards also average more points each than Iowa’s leading scorer, junior Ally Disterhoft.

“They just work so well together,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. “They’ve been really fun to watch.”

The Buckeyes average 73.1 points per game, while the Hawks average 69.8.

Iowa has faced two of the players in the top five in scoring average and has had a difficult time locking either athlete down. The Hawks’ defense has been a bit slow lately, especially when it matters in the second half.

“People ask me ‘How do you stop Kelsey Mitchell?’ ” Bluder said. “That’s like saying how do you keep the Sun from rising in the morning. You can’t; it’s almost impossible.”

The head coach noted that the Hawks will need to provide help from the athletes who aren’t scoring as much and taking as many shots.

“It’s obviously an incredible basketball team coming in,” Bluder said. “We have a big challenge ahead of us this week.”

Moving on from its losses

Time is ticking, and there are just six regular-season conference games remaining. Iowa followed a short two-game winning streak with two-straight losses and has dropped in the conference standings.

Both of Iowa’s most recent losses stemmed from not capitalizing on offense in the fourth quarter and playing lackluster defense.

While the past few weeks haven’t been what the team had hoped for, Bluder said it’s time to keep moving on.

“We’re getting better, and that’s to be expected with a young team,” she said. “Good things are happening with our team. We just have to take the positives from games and keep staying positive with the team, and build on that.”

The conference schedule has been tough, however. There’s really no night off in the Big Ten with 18 games and few breaks in the schedule.

“It’s a bit hard keeping them up,” Bluder said. “I do think young people are more resilient than us coaches. They bounce back quicker, they always have the next day, and that’s the way you want them to be.”

Playing time

In its last contest against the Spartans, Bluder played her starters for much of the game. Disterhoft played 39 minutes, and sophomore Whitney Jennings played 34.

Junior Alexa Kastanek and senior Kali Peschel played for a combined of six minutes, and sophomore Christina Buttenham played for 20 minutes.

Bluder said this rotation won’t always be that way, but it is difficult with the team’s lack of depth.

“I think those are sometimes what’s happening within the game situations,” Bluder said. “We would like to use more people than that.”

Follow @marioxwilliams for Iowa women’s basketball news, updates, and analysis.