Hawkeye Women Fall to Bulldogs, 92-86

Hawkeye Women Fall to Bulldogs, 92-86

Everything was against them, and at the end, the scoreboard was too.

The Hawkeye Women's Basketball team took on the #11 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs in front of the hostile environment and lost 92-86in the 1st Round of the NCAA Tournament. Iowa had to play the 1st Round game in Spokane, WA on Gonzaga's home court in what is definitely one of the weirdest first round seeding decisions you will ever see. Unfortunately Kachine Alexander's 20 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists along with Jaime Printy's 25 points were not enough to hold off the Bulldogs.

The game started at a rapid pace, Iowa was trailing Gonzaga 18-17 with 13:44 to play in the first half. With 11:50 left in the first half the score was all knotted at 23. With 9:20 to play in the first half, Iowa trailed the Zags, 29-25. Over the final minutes of the first half Iowa went on a 10-2 run to take the lead 44-37 at halftime.

In the 2nd half Iowa continued to hold the lead and still had it with 12 mintues left at 60-55. After that it was all about Gonzaga's guard duo of Courtney Vandersloot and Kayla Standish. Standish scored 22 of her 30 points in the 2nd half and helped Gonzaga regain the lead at 69-65 with 7 minutes left in the game. Vandersloot also had 34 points for the game.

Iowa trailed by 5, 75-70, with five minutes to play in the game and with 3:10 on the clock they were still down 81-77.

It came down to free throws and Gonzaga hit them all down the stretch. Jaime Printy connected on a 3 pointer with 23 seconds left to make the game 89-86 but Iowa's final possession ended in a turnover and Gonzaga sealed the victory.

The Hawkeyes broke a school record for 3 pointers in a game with 13.

With a 3, at 16:44, Jaime Printy became the youngest Iowa player to reach the 1,000 point milestone! She needed 4 points.

Kachine Alexander broke the school record in made free throws in a single season. The senior had 148 made FT's this season.

Kash ended her great career as a Hawkeye with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists. She also notched her 10th double double of the season and 34th of her career.

Gonzaga has won 19 consecutive games and is the nation's highest scoring team. The only loss on that floor all year was to Stanford.

Congrats to the Lady Hawks on a great season!

Joseph Larsen

Community Contributor