Doolittle counters Hurricanes move

IOWA CITY — Many college teams defend by trying to take away the offense's main threat. Against Iowa, Miami deployed its man-to-man to stop the Hawkeyes' 3-point shooting. That strategy works if the other parts of the offense don't execute their responsibilities.

Iowa senior center Bethany Doolittle almost single-handedly foiled the Hurricanes' game plan scoring a game-high 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in an 88-70 NCAA Tournament victory.

Doolittle was almost AWOL against American University in the first game of the regional, but on Sunday when her team needed her most, she was in charge.

'A stud,' Iowa's Samantha Logic said of Doolittle's performance. 'She just played one of her best games I've seen in a really long time, if ever. We just wanted to keep feeding her and keep going to her, and if she didn't do it, she got the O-board and she got it herself.'

Iowa averages 20.8 threes attempted and 8.2 made per game. Against Miami Iowa took nine and made five.

'That was the choice that we had to make because of their perimeter talent,' Miami Coach Katie Meier said.

'They were trying to take away the three,' Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'We were smart. We didn't shoot a bunch then. But what that does is open up the middle. It opened things up for Beth. It opened up drives for other players.'

Doolittle scored on faceup jumpers, fakes and drives to the hoop, off offensive rebounds and with 6-of-6 foul shooting. She had shots blocked but was undeterred and blocked three Miami shots herself. She made what Meier said was the key play in the game.

With Iowa nursing a 69-63 lead with 7 minutes, 20 seconds left, Logic missed the first of a one-and-one.

'Doolittle came and got the free throw and then hit a jumper in our face,' Meier said. 'And that's a huge, basically four-point swing there in a six-point game and from that point on I think we kind of broke.'

'Obviously I'm assuming all the free throws are going in for our team, but sometimes that doesn't happen,' Doolittle said. '(I try) crashing hard on the O-boards on free throws and a couple times that worked out for me today. That was a momentum shifter.'

Iowa also got six points, a rebound and an assist from freshman Chase Coley when she took over in the post.

'She played great minutes for us,' Doolittle said. 'That's what our team is about.'

She should know.