Hawks have quick opportunity to bounce back

IOWA CITY - Learn, then let it go.

After suffering a somewhat unexpected and thoroughly disappointing loss Thursday at Illinois, 17th-ranked Iowa looks to rebound Sunday with a Big Ten women's basketball game against Purdue.

Tipoff is 1 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

'We can't change what happened (Thursday),” said senior point guard Samantha Logic. 'But we have to hold on to it a little bit, use it as motivation and learn a lesson from it.”

And that lesson is?

'That every Big Ten game matters,” Logic said. 'There are no games in this league in which you can just show up.”

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Hawkeyes (11-3 overall, 2-1 Big Ten). But it didn't end Melissa Dixon's recent tear.

Dixon added eight more 3-pointers Thursday in a 24-point performance. The most prolific outside shooter in the country (and one of the most accurate), Dixon has hit 29 long-range shots in the last four games.

'Thank God for Melissa,” said Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder. 'She's always been a 3-point shooter, but she's really on a shooter's roll right now.”

Dixon has hit 61 of 126 shots from long range - 48.4 percent.

'I haven't seen this (prolonged) of a hot streak from anyone,” Logic said. 'The stats say it, she's the best shooter in the country. We've got to get the ball to her.”

Despite the hot stretch, Dixon isn't demanding shots.

'I'm just trying to let the game come to me,” she said. 'Everybody on this team is so unselfish.”

After the clunker in Champaign, the Hawkeyes are glad to have such a quick opportunity for redemption.

'We need to learn from a bad loss. We've got to stay positive,” Dixon said. 'There's a lot of season left.”

Purdue (9-6, 2-2) also fell Thursday, 88-64 at Maryland. The Boilermakers are led by Whitney Bays, who averages 14.9 points and 10.6 rebounds per contest.

'She's playing really well,” Bluder said. 'She's strong. She's agile. She creates a matchup problem for us.”

Iowa is 11-0 in games it has scored more than 70 points, 0-3 otherwise.

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