Iowa women’s basketball warms up with 102-32 exhibition win over Truman State

IOWA CITY — Lisa Bluder said her team needed to improve its defense this season.

One exhibition game does not a season make, but things appear to be trending up in that department for the Iowa women's basketball team.

And, by the way, the offense was not shabby either.

The No. 9 Hawkeyes came out focused from the start, holding Division II foe Truman State to 15 percent shooting (10 of 65), rolling to a 102-32 win Thursday night before a crowd of 4,754 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“This was a relly good start to our season,” Bluder said. “I understand we played a Division II school tonight, but we kept our focus, we kept our energy, we kept intensity which is hard to do sometimes when you look at the scoreboard.”

To Bluder's point, the Hawkeyes stormed out to a 22-0 lead before Truman State's Hannah Belanger converted a short jumper with 3:05 left in the first quarter. The Hawkeye lead grew to 44-2 before the Bulldogs were able to dent the scoreboard again.

“I was happy with our defense, to be sure,” Bluder said. “We had a lot of tremendous individual performances as well.”

Sophomore Caitlin Clark picked up where she left off last season, finishing with 25 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in just 25 minutes of action. After playing in near obscurity last season due to COVID-19 protocols, Clark said there were some nerves before the game.

“It kinda made me a little more nervous than usual,” she said. “It was just super awesome. I am one of those types of players who really likes to play in front of fans.

“Carver is definitely always electric. To see this many fans come out for an exhibition game, that just shows the excitement and buzz around this team. I really expect it to be more and more as we move forward.”

That buzz was likely amplified by the play of 6-foot-4 freshman post Addison O'Grady. She scored 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting and pulled down six rebounds in 22 minutes. With the season-ending knee injury suffered in the preseason by Sharon Goodman, O'Grady is in line to be the primary backup for senior Monika Czinano.

“She brings us 6-4, which we don't have,” Bluder said. “She's got a soft touch and you can see she runs the floor very well. She has good hands and timing as well.”

Junior McKenna Warnock, who had 18 points, echoed her coach's evaluation of O'Grady.

“You saw how awesome Addie O'Grady could be out there tonight,” Warnock said. “We also had other new players play well, especially on defense diving for loose balls on the floor. I think they are a great asset to our team.”

Bluder also liked what she saw from the other newcomers to the roster, Kylie Feuerbach, Sydney Affolter and AJ Ediger.

“I have no complaints,” Bluder said. “I thought they played hard and that's all you can do right now and not worry about making mistakes because when you start worrying about mistakes, that's exactly what you do.”

Belanger led Truman State with 14 points.

Two former Gazette area players are on the Truman State roster. Ex-Iowa City Regina prep Kennedy Wallace was scoreless in eight minutes of action. Carly Printy, who played at Linn-Mar, did not see any action.