The Iowa women’s basketball team beats Purdue, 63-55.
By Mario Williams | [email protected]
It hasn’t been a happy February for both the Iowa and Purdue women’s basketball teams.
Both teams underwent four-game losing streaks, but one team’s streak had to come to an end Thursday in Carver-Hawkeye. Iowa won the battle, 63-55, and is now 16-11, 6-9 in the Big Ten.
“We haven’t heard ‘In Heaven There is no Beer’ in a long time,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. “We needed that. We just needed that breath of fresh air and that ability to get that win on our home court.”
Throughout much of the game, however, it was sloppy, and it started when Iowa committed its first turnover of the first quarter within seconds of freshman Megan Gustafson winning the tip-off. Purdue scored first, and freshman Tania Davis answered. The Boilermakers pressed early, hurting Iowa. The Hawks committed 8 of its 21 turnovers in the first quarter.
The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle. Gustafson had an opportunity to take the lead at the charity stripe but only made one of the two shots. Purdue then took the lead after a lay-up in the paint, and the first quarter closed in a 12-12 tie.
Of Iowa’s 12 points, 10 were scored in the paint. Junior Ally Disterhoft was perfect from the field, 2-of-2 for 4 points. She ended the night with 12.
Purdue was 0-of-5 from downtown and shot 31.3 percent from the field in the first quarter. Purdue’s leading scorer, April Wilson didn’t start the contest, playing four minutes in the first quarter, and she was held without a point.
The second quarter was Iowa’s best 10 minutes of the game. Purdue played poorly, allowing Iowa to go on a 10-0 run, taking advantage of the Boilermakers’ lackluster shooting.
With seconds winding down in the second quarter, freshman Tania Davis committed a turnover, and Purdue had two chances at a shot but couldn’t execute.
Despite Iowa leading by as much as 10 in the second quarter, that was cut to 5 when the quarter ended.
Iowa shot 0-of-5 from downtown in the first half and didn’t attempt another shot from behind the arc for the remainder of the game.
The Hawkeyes again took a 10-point lead in the third quarter, but Purdue cut it down to a 3-point lead. The Boilermakers tried to find rhythm downtown, shooting 60 percent from the 3-point line. Wilson scored 10 points in the third quarter and was 5-of-8 from the field. Because of Wilson’s efforts and two Andreona Keys buckets during the period, Purdue led Iowa at the end of the third quarter.
“We just couldn’t hang on to those leads,” Bluder said.
Iowa outscored the Boilermakers 16-6 in the fourth quarter, though, and that sealed the deal. The Hawks came out strong in the fourth quarter, going on a 6-0 run. The Boilermakers couldn’t unanswer for the last four minutes of the game.
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For a team that has lost leads in fourth quarters along with playing lackluster defense, ending Thursday’s game with a solid fourth quarter performance was imperative.
“We just came together in the huddle in the last four minutes and said, ‘Let’s go out and win this game; it’s been a while,’ ” sophomore Chase Coley said.
Davis and Gustafson combined for 12 of Iowa’s 16 points in the fourth quarter, and they were perfect from the field. Gustafson led all scorers with 18 points and 7 rebounds.
On Feb. 21, the Hawkeyes will battle with a team that scored 32 points in the fourth quarter to walk away with a win, Indiana.
“We owe them,” Disterhoft said.
Follow @marioxwilliams for Iowa women’s basketball news, updates, and analysis.
