By Michael McCurdy
After taking Ohio State down to the wire in Columbus on Feb. 12, the Hawkeyes hoped to carry the same mindset with them on the road in West Lafayette when they took on Purdue on Sunday.Early on, it appeared as if Iowa retained its mojo from the last couple of games, until halftime hit and the wheels fell off.
Iowa went into halftime with a 10 point lead, 35-25, but was outscored in the second half 47-17 and fell to the Boilermakers, 72-52.
“I’m not sure what happened at halftime, but I think it has more to do with Purdue,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder said in a press conference. “They came out differently, and we didn’t respond to that. Give credit to Purdue.”
The Hawkeyes were again without freshman Bre Cera and junior Christina Buttenham along with sophomore Tania Davis. So even with a large chunk of the team’s production gone to injury, Iowa prevailed for half of the game.
Pounding it inside was the key to success for Iowa in the first half as sophomore Megan Gustafson left for halftime with 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Senior Ally Disterhoft added 9, and freshman Kathleen Doyle hit 7 first-half points.
The lack of depth and youth caught up to the Hawkeyes in the third quarter though, as Purdue stampeded into the second half going on a 12-0 run to regain the lead. At that point, the Hawkeyes were too shell-shocked to try to fight back as Purdue kept its foot on the gas.
“We’re pretty wounded right now as far as pride,” Bluder said in a press conference. “It will have to be our seniors trying to get them ready to play. This is the time of year when the seniors have to take over, and they have to play with heart and passion, and they have to be leaders on and off the floor.”
Iowa shot a whopping 15.6 percent in the second half going 5-of-32 on field goals, an almost impossible stat line if you’re hoping to pull out a win.
Gustafson only scored 5 points in the second half to go along with Doyle’s 2 and a scoreless Disterhoft.
Disterhoft struggling on the road has been a prevalent narrative for most of the season, but this is first time she’s been held scoreless for an entire half.
“It was a mental thing, the aggressiveness,” Bluder said. “The first half we were aggressive, the second half Purdue was aggressive. They transitioned the ball well in the second half, they rebounded — we gave up 22 more rebounds in the second half. That is effort by Purdue, not just lack of effort by Iowa.”
This loss puts Iowa at 16-11 overall, 7-7 in conference play. If the Hawkeyes had beaten Purdue they would be tied for fourth in the Big Ten standings at 8-6, but they now are tied for fifth with Northwestern.
Getting a high seed in the Big Ten Tournament will be more difficult now for the Hawkeyes; they will go on the road again Wednesday to take on Indiana, which is 8-6.