At times, offensive efficiency was tough to come by for Iowa in its first-round NCAA Tournament win over Mercer. The Hawkeyes found themselves in a hole in the turnover battle, committing 24 compared to Mercer’s 3.

When Iowa did put points up on the scoreboard, however, they often came from the 1-2 punch of Megan Gustafson and Makenzie Meyer.

The two Hawkeye veterans acted as an inside-outside combo to provide most of Iowa’s scoring on Friday and led Iowa to a 66-61 victory despite the sloppy play.

Gustafson followed up her magnificent performance in the Big Ten Tournament Championship with another one for the record books.

Gustafson accounted for 30 of the teams 66 points and went 14-of-16 from the field. She did not miss a field goal attempt until midway through the fourth quarter, and after coming in too strong on a layup attempt, she grabbed her own miss and laid it back in while also drawing a foul.

In a highly competitive game, that bucket gave Iowa crucial points in what was a back-and-forth final quarter.

“It was a crucial time in the game when we really needed a bucket,” Gustafson said. “It felt really good seeing the ball go through the net and to draw the foul, it gave us the momentum we needed going forward.”

In a season full of breaking records and filling up the stat sheet, Gustafson added a pair of honors on Friday.

In the third quarter, Gustafson passed Minnesota’s Rachel Banham for the most points scored in a season in Big Ten history. Gustafson currently has 927 points on the season, and she will only extend that record the rest of the season.

Earlier in the day, Gustafson was also named one of four finalists for the Naismith Women’s Player of the Year. Combine those with picking up her first NCAA tournament victory, and Gustafson had herself quite the day.

While Gustafson did her damage in the paint, Meyer was a sharpshooter for Iowa when it needed her most.

Continuing her success from beyond the arc in the Big Ten Tournament – where she went 42.9 percent from 3-point range – Meyer hit five of her seven 3-point attempts in the biggest game of the season to this point.

The five 3-pointers for Meyer set a career high, and she was happy to set that mark on the biggest stage.

“It is always nice to be able to take some weight off of Megan’s shoulders, because she does so much for us,” Meyer said. “Mercer was very aggressive defensively in the paint, which left some perimeter shots open, and luckily I knocked some down.”

The biggest shot of the game for Meyer was a buzzer-beating 3 in the corner to end the first half and give Iowa an eight-point lead at the break.

Meyer finished with 16 points, 15 of them coming from deep.

Gustafson and Meyer accounted for 46 of the team’s 66 points, and according to Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder, that tandem was the difference for Iowa.

“We won this game because of how well we shot the ball,” Bluder said. “When you get 40 points in the paint and make shots from outside like we did, you can overcome turnovers. That’s what we did today.”

Iowa shot an efficient 54.9 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range on the day to advance to the second round.

The Hawkeyes will look to keep the hot shooting stroke going on March 24, where they will play the winner of the Missouri-Drake game for a shot at the Sweet 16.