Another game, another win for the Iowa women’s basketball team; this time, it gave thanks for a 77-64 Nov. 23 win over Charlotte to improve to 6-0 on the season in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It was the second game for the Hawkeyes in the Puerto Rico Classic, which was moved to Fort Lauderdale because of heavy hurricane damage in the American territory. As has been typical for the Hawkeyes this season, they started the game as cold as the Iowa winter, er, autumn.

The slow start — mostly due to poor defense and poor shooting from deep — resulted in a 24-12 deficit at the end of the first quarter.

“That’s two games in a row we’ve come out with a slow start,” head coach Lisa Bluder said. “Slow start today was really just not being able to knock down 3s in the first quarter. We [also] didn’t do really well in our zone defense to begin this game.”

During the break between quarters, it seemed that Iowa soaked up a little of the Florida heat, which translated to its play the rest of the game.

Red hot, the Hawkeyes outscored the 49ers, 23-8, in the second quarter to erase the 12-point deficit and create a 3-point lead at the half.

Improved shooting propelled Iowa’s run. After shooting 31 percent in the first quarter, the squad elevated its shooting to 71 percent in the second.

The second quarter has been golden for the Hawkeyes the past three games — they have outscored their opponents by a combined 43 points in that span.

Much of the reason for the second-quarter run came at the hands of an improved defensive effort. For the second game in a row, the Hawkeyes held the opposing team to fewer than 10 points in the quarter.

“I’m proud of the team,” Bluder said. “We’re down 12 points in the first quarter, and we battled back and go into halftime with a lead. The second quarter, we got [our defense] together. We held them to 8 points, that allowed us to fight back in.”

In every game prior to Nov. 23, at least four Hawkeyes reached double figures, but on Nov. 23, only three reached the 10-point mark.

Junior Megan Gustafson was the fierce leader for the Hawkeyes; she put up 23 points while grabbing 14 boards, her sixth double-double of the season and 33rd of her career.

Makenzie Meyer had herself a game as well, pouring in 17 points while handing out a team-high 7 assists.

Other contributors included Tania Davis, who had 11 points with 5 assists, and Kathleen Doyle, who in her second game back from injury put up 6 points and 6 assists.

Iowa’s next game will be its final game of the Puerto Rico Classic; the Hawkeyes will take on Elon at 4 p.m. on Nov. 25.