Hawkeyes cool red-hot Hoosiers, 76-73

IOWA CITY – In a game they had to have, Iowa got something from everyone.

Bolstered by double-figure scoring from all five starters, the Hawkeyes held off red-hot Indiana, 76-73, in a Big Ten women's basketball game before a season-high crowd of 9,838 fans Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

'We needed every one of them,' Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'Five people in double figures, I love the balance of our team. We did a great job with that.'

The win likely keeps an NCAA tournament at-large berth in play for Iowa (17-11, 7-9 Big Ten), which visits Penn State (10-17, 5-11) on Wednesday.

Indiana (18-10, 10-6) arrived in Iowa City with a five-game conference win streak, which started with a come-from-behind victory over the Hawkeyes Feb. 4 in Boomington. The Hoosiers jumped on Iowa early and scored the first nine points of the game.

'That was an awful minute and a half,' Bluder said in the team huddle. 'The good news is, we have 38 and a half minutes that we can change things.'

Iowa turned the game in the closing seconds of the opening quarter. A 3-pointer from Whitney Jennings started a 25-2 explosion that gave Iowa its largest lead of the first half at 41-22. Jennings finished with 10 points, while freshman guard Tania Davis scored 11 of her 17 points in the second quarter.

'In the first quarter I was not as aggressive as I should have been,' said Davis, who was a point away from equaling her season high. 'Just looking for my shots and looking to create.'

As Indiana cut the deficit to four points on multiple occasions in the second half, the team gave no thought to their last meeting in which Iowa lost after leading by 11 in the final quarter.

'I had complete confidence in our team,' said junior Ally Disterhoft, who finished with a team-high 19 points. 'We're a young team, but we've taken steps to improve and we're really starting to put it together.'

Two Disterhoft free throws with 15.4 seconds left gave Iowa a three-point lead, which held up when Indiana missed two 3-pointers in the final possession. Bluder did not opt to foul the Hoosiers with a three-point lead.

'We usually do go down that road,' Bluder said. 'We didn't get that called in the timeout well enough. We talked about what we wanted to do. I didn't talk about what we wanted to do in the last five seconds of that game. I don't believe in doing it until then.'

Sophomore Chase Coley tallied 10 points and 10 rebounds, while freshman Megan Gustafson scored at least 10 for the seventh time in eight games.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com