Iowa pulls away from Rutgers with strong third quarter

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Iowa women's basketball team broke loose in the third quarter to defeat Rutgers, 71-59, Tuesday night in The RAC.

Leading by two, 29-27 at halftime, Iowa (12-7, 3-3) outscored Rutgers 23-12 in the third quarter. Iowa shot a perfect 7-for-7 from the field and was 9-for-11 on free throws.

'In the third quarter we broke their press with confidence and got high-percentage shots off that,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder told hawkeyesports.com. 'They fouled us a lot and we got to the free throw line.”

The Hawkeyes ended the game shooting a season-best 62.5 percent (25 of 40) from the floor.

Megan Gustafson led Iowa with 19 points and Tania Davis had 15 points to go with five rebounds and four assists.

Makenzie Meyer had 10 points and Kathleen Doyle had five assists.

Senior Ally Disterhoft scored six points to move past former Hawkeye Jaime Printy into third place on Iowa's career scoring list.

Shrita Parker matched her career-best with 20 points for Rutgers (6-14, 3-4).

Iowa returns home to face Minnesota (10-8, 1-4) at 2 p.m. Saturday.

'It's Girl Scout day and Go Red for Women,” Bluder said. 'We will have a fabulous crowd.”