Iowa women off to record-setting start

IOWA CITY – If you didn't know the Iowa women's basketball team entered the season with significant offensive firepower, a school record in the season opener served notice.

With five players scoring in double figures, No. 19 Iowa set a new program standard for points in a game and blistered South Carolina Upstate, 107-56, before 5,291 fans last night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

'It's fun to set a school record,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'That record has stood for over 20 years, as I understand. Some of these guys weren't even born then.”

Iowa (1-0) spotted the Spartans the game's first five points before running off 59 first-half points with runs of 15-3, 18-2 and 19-4. The Hawkeyes overwhelmed USC Upstate behind sophomore Ally Disterhoft, who made seven of her first eight field goals for 16 first-half points. The former Iowa City West prep finished with a game-high 19 in 17 minutes.

'I think it's easy to hit open looks and easy shots when you have teammates that are always looking to make the extra pass,” Disterhoft said. 'When you're shooting layups most of the time, and that's pretty fun. But that's something, like Coach Bluder said, we pride ourselves in – is playing non-selfish basketball.”

The previous school record for points in a game was 106, reached twice with the last occurrence coming during the 1989-90 season. Melissa Dixon drilled 4-of-5 three-pointers for 16 points. Dixon needs just seven points to reach 1,000 for her career.

'I feel like our offense is clicking pretty well for this early in the year,” Bluder said. 'Obviously, we shot the ball very well from both the two-point and three-point line. But I was happy to see the number of assists.”

All four freshmen were involved in the first-half rotation for Iowa, which last hit the century mark in the regular season against UNC-Wilmington in last year's Cancun (Mexico) Challenge. Whitney Jennings started in Bluder's three-guard alignment, the first freshman to start an opener since Logic in 2011. The 5-foot-5 former Indiana Miss Basketball scored seven points and collected five assists with four turnovers. Fellow freshman Chase Coley added seven, while Christina Buttenham tallied five.

'I think they did very well,” Bluder said. 'I think Whitney had some good open looks. I thought all of her looks were good. Little short on a couple of them, but she'll be there, so I'm not concerned about that. I thought Carly did a good job crashing the boards. She had three offensive rebounds for us, so that was nice to see. I thought, again, they did a really nice job for the first time out.”

Bethany Doolittle utilized a four-inch height advantage over USC Upstate counterpart Brittany Starling and posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Iowa improved to 15-0 in season openers under Bluder.

Coco Ritter led with 11 points for USC Upstate, which returned all five starters and is picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Iowa hosts Robert Morris Sunday at 2. USC Upstate plays at Iowa State Sunday at 12:30 p.m. in the season opener for the Cyclones.

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com