Iowa looks to extend mastery of Wisconsin

IOWA CITY — This stretch, Lisa Bluder said, is "a bear."

Wednesday night, it's the Badgers.

The Iowa Hawkeyes will try to shake off a two-game losing streak at what has been a friendly venue; they meet Wisconsin at 7 p.m. at the Kohl Center.

It's the fourth game of a five-game stretch in 13 days.

'It's crazy,' Bluder said. 'Nobody in their right mind would do this. Unfortunately, the Big Ten is doing this.

'It's awful. Dealing with the travel, it's a lot. The kids need a mental break, and they're not going to get it right now.'

Because of the compact 18-game schedule, and because of the early Big Ten tournament (traditionally a week before the men's tournament), there are no 'bye nights' for the women in league play. So this is what they get.

Iowa (12-4 overall, 2-2 Big Ten) needs a win to keep a mini-slump from becoming something bigger. The Hawkeyes blew a 17-point lead at Michigan last week, then suffered a 20-point home loss to Maryland on Sunday.

'We'll be fine,' Ally Disterhoft said. 'We should have a ton of confidence Wednesday, because we've been able to play well at Wisconsin in the past. We know we're a good team, but we need to play a complete game.'

The Hawkeyes own a 15-game win streak against Wisconsin, including seven straight at the Kohl Center.

'We need a win,' Bluder said. 'We know we're not going to win every game, but we can sure fight every game. I don't know if we fought to the best of our ability (against Maryland).'

Wisconsin (6-8, 2-2) has won both of its Big Ten home games, against Indiana and Penn State.

For freshman Megan Gustafson, Wednesday represents a return to her home state. The 6-foot-3 native of Port Wing — a village of 150 on the south shore of Lake Superior — picked the Hawkeyes over the Badgers.

'Once I met this team, everything else had to compare to Iowa,' Gustafson said.

For the first time this season, Gustafson and Chase Coley were on the floor together for about 10 minutes against Maryland.

'We're working on it,' Gustafson said. 'It's fairly new to us. We have some things to work out, but once we do, I think it will be effective.'

Bluder said, 'It's not something you'll see a lot, maybe 6-7 minutes a game. We're trying to tweak our offense a little to make that workable.'

Point guard Whitney Jennings may be in the midst of breaking out of a sophomore slump. In her last three games, she has converted on 12 of 26 field-goal attempts and has averaged 9.3 points per game.

'At first, I wasn't able to hit shots,' Jennings said. 'Lately, I've been able to do that. When you see a few more baskets go through the hoop, it's helpful.'

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com