By James Kay
The Iowa women’s basketball team decimated Northern Iowa, 88-39, in Carver-Hawkeye on Sunday. It was the largest margin of victory against Northern Iowa in 22 meetings between the two.
“I think it was our best all-around performance of the year as far as just being able to start the game under control,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said. “I thought we took control of the game early, both offensively and defensively. That was really nice to see. After kind of digging ourselves a hole in the last couple of games, we were able to come out and take control. We talked about that with our team, and I thought they responded really well to that.”
Senior Ally Disterhoft led the team with 17 points and 3 assists. She made all four of her 3-point attempts and moved up to 10th on Iowa’s all-time 3-pointers-made list.
“I think I’ve done a better job of not second guessing myself on the release and trusting my teammates will find me when I am open,” she said. “It’s the same for me going into every single game, and I have to get ready to shoot those shots when they are open.”
Sophomore Megan Gustafson recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and a season-high 17 rebounds. Iowa had seven players score 7 points or more, while all but one player played 10 or more minutes.
After shooting 28 percent from 3-point range against Notre Dame in their previous game, the Hawkeyes looked like a completely different team against the Panthers, shooting 68 percent from behind the arc.
Iowa toyed with the Panther defense throughout the first half, making its first four 3-pointers. The Hawkeyes held Northern Iowa to 19 percent from the field, and the Panthers only made 3 of their 16 3-point attempts in the first half.
Bluder knew going into the game that the Hawkeyes would need to shut down Northern Iowa’s high tendency of 3-point shots.
“That was one of our keys. They come in here 10th best in the country at 3-pointers taken, 14th best in the country at 3-pointers made,” Bluder said. “So we wanted to get out and contest. We said every shot has to be contested. Every 3 has to be contested. So I thought they did a really good job of doing that.”
Gustafson came alive in the second half after only recording 2 points in the first half. She tallied 8 points and grabbed 5 rebounds in eight minutes of work in the second half.
“In the first half, my shots weren’t falling right away, but I really focused on rebounding and getting my teammates the ball,” she said. “Once I got into the flow of things, it started to get a lot better.”
In the second half, both teams turned the ball over (13 times for the Hawkeyes, 11 for UNI) while Iowa’s starters sat out the majority of the half. Despite the turnover margin not being in its favor, Iowa scored 48 points in the second half while allowing only 22.
The Hawkeyes will take on Iowa State in Carver-Hawkeye at 7 p.m. Wednesday.