Iowa women fall to No. 24 Nebraska, 80-68

By Matthew Glenesk, Correspondent

INDIANAPOLIS -- In her postgame press conference, Lisa Bluder reached for her eyeglasses to decode the box score of Friday's Big Ten tournament quarterfinal loss to Nebraska.

“When Hailie Sample hits a three...Is that her only one of the year?” the Hawkeyes coach asked of the Nebraska forward.

The answer was yes.

“Yeah, that's kind of tough,” Bluder decided.

Third-seeded Iowa was unable to hold an eight-point second half lead as No. 24 and sixth-seeded Nebraska rode a late 3-point barrage to bounce the Hawkeyes 80-68.

Now, Iowa must wait two weeks to see if its 19-11 record and No. 37 RPI ranking warrant a look from the NCAA tournament selection committee.

Prior to Friday's loss, ESPN.com's Bracketology had the Hawkeyes firmly in the tournament as a No. 8 seed.

“Usually when you're in the 30s in the RPI, that's pretty good,” Bluder said. “We're in one of the toughest women's basketball conferences in America. We tied for second in that conference and we played well down the stretch - very well - and that's something people look for. We proved we could play without (injured star Jaime Printy). I think that was important for us. I feel very good about our chances.”

Friday's loss snapped an eight-game win streak for the Hawkeyes and was Nebraska's third victory over Iowa this season. The loss shouldn't hurt Iowa's RPI or tournament standing much, but the defeat brings the Hawkeyes record against ranked opponents to 2-6 this season.

“It is a bit of a concern I guess, but it's one of those things at the beginning of the year we weren't playing quite as well as a team and were still trying to find our identity,” Kamille Wahlin said of the team's struggled versus ranked foes. “It's one of those things where we have to learn how hard the best teams play. At the same time, we have two weeks. We can't focus on it too much, but hopefully for the NCAAs we can learn from it and be ready.”

On Friday, Iowa fell down by seven early, but used a 24-9 run to build an eight-point lead as Nebraska's All-Big Ten first team performer Jordan Hooper sat with foul trouble. However the advantage was trimmed to 36-33 when Wahlin, who enjoyed a fine first half, dribbled the ball off her foot allowing Nebraska's Lindsey Moore to scoop it up and hit a long, desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer.

That shot seemed to shift momentum for the Cornhuskers (23-7). Down 48-40, Nebraska, the Big Ten leaders with 7.1 3-pointers a game, hit three successive shots from behind-the-arc to regain the lead 49-48. That hot outside shooting coupled with the return of Hooper from first half foul trouble, provided Nebraska an obvious boost, and a 27-9 second half Cornhuskers' run put the game away.

“We lost some intensity on the defensive side,” said freshman guard Samantha Logic. “Lindsey Moore hit some big shots for them, and they outplayed us a little bit. We knew their shots would eventually fall.”

Moore finished with 26 points, including 4-of-5 from behind-the-arc. Hooper, the Big Ten's leading rebounder, added 15 points and 10 rebounds despite sitting for 17-plus minutes in the first half.

Wahlin and Logic combined for 25 of Iowa's 36 first half points, but managed just nine combined points in the second half.

“It's kind of one of those things that you knew was coming in the second half,” Wahlin said. “In the locker room we said, ‘Hey, we have to continue to play hard, we have to continue to battle.' It just got to the point where we were trying to dig ourselves out of a hole. We got cold a little bit. That's just the way it goes.”

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