By Michael McCurdy | [email protected]

Without starting point guard Tania Davis, a sense of uncertainty loomed over Carver-Hawkeye before the Hawkeye women’s home basketball contest against Michigan State on Thursday.

After a game of back and forth basketball, the Iowa women’s basketball team prevailed, defeating the Spartans in overtime, 87-83.  The Hawkeyes proved to themselves and the rest of the country that even without Davis and with their youth, they still have the strength and determination to compete for the rest of the season in the Big Ten.

“For our really young team to band together and finish the game in overtime is really impressive,” senior Ally Disterhoft said.  “It’s a sigh of relief, yes, but also excited and really happy to get this win.”

The result did not always seem apparent during the game, because Iowa dug itself into a deep hole in the opening minutes, going down 13-1 and forcing Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder to call a time-out. 

After an earful from Bluder, the Hawkeyes played with a sense of urgency and cohesiveness that let them back into the game. 

“I called the early time-out, and I got on them pretty good,” Bluder said. “But they responded and then came out and outscored them 13-6, which made it respectable at the end of the first quarter.  So again they responded to that, which you don’t know how freshmen are going to take that criticism, but they handled it.”

After being down 33-30 at the half, the Hawkeyes played their best minutes in the third quarter, outscoring the Spartans 20-11, shooting 60 percent from the field and going 6-of-9 from the free-throw line. 

Disterhoft drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Iowa the lead 39-37 midway in the quarter, and from that point on, the Hawkeyes felt they had the game in the bag — until Michigan State guard Tori Jankoska caught fire.

Coming into the contest, Iowa keyed in on Jankoska, knowing the threat she poses on the offensive end. At first, they did a fine job, holding her to 4 first-half points. 

With 24 seconds left, Iowa held the lead 67-63, but Jankoska took matters into her own hands and made two clutch 3-point baskets over the hands of freshman Kathleen Doyle to send the game into overtime, in which the Hawkeyes hit some crunch-time free throws, going 10-of-12 to put the game away.

“I felt like I was contesting her shots pretty well,” Doyle said.  “My whole team was focused on not letting Jankoska shoot it, but great players are going to make huge shots, and she did that for them.”

Bluder said she’s taking a sigh of relief after this game, but that sigh can only last so long; the Hawkeyes will now travel to Columbus to meet Ohio State at 11 a.m. Feb. 12.

The Buckeyes are currently 21-5 overall, 11-1 in conference play. So Iowa will have its hands full against not only one of the top teams in the Big Ten but in the country. 

Iowa will be riding into Columbus with a new sense of confidence after defeating the Spartans without Davis and starting three freshmen. 

“More than anything, this game gives us confidence that we can play well without Tania,” Bluder said.  “We hate it, but we can do it.”