Hawkeye women crank up the defense to power past Bulldogs

By Jason Brummond, Correspondent

IOWA CITY - Iowa's three-day defensive makeover looks tremendous. Now the Hawkeyes need to maintain it.

The Iowa women's basketball team stifled Drake, forcing 22 turnovers and playing tight on the perimeter in a 71-46 victory Tuesday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

This was the fewest points allowed all year for the Hawkeyes (7-5), who have struggled a bit on defense and surrendered a season-high 98 points just three days ago at Bradley.

“We are a team that has been good in one area and not so good in another,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “Hopefully, this is going to get us on a roll. I think we've shown ourselves that we can do it and sometimes that's the most important person to prove it to.”

The Hawkeyes went on a 20-2 run during an 11-minute stretch early in the first half - led by three 3-pointers from Samantha Logic - to turn a two-point contest into a 26-6 lead.

Jamie Printy led Iowa with 16 points, even though she missed all six 3-point attempts. The freshman Logic added 12 points, four assists and no turnovers in 21 minutes.

Drake (5-5) shot 34.5 percent from the floor, including a dreadful 6 of 25 in the first half that produced only 15 points.

The Bulldogs came in as one of the nation's top 3-point shooting teams at 38 percent. But Iowa - which allowed 13 3-pointers Saturday against Bradley - gave up two against the Drake on 11 attempts.

The Hawkeyes have been inconsistent on defense all season and ranked near the bottom of the Big Ten in several key statistics going into Tuesday night's game.

Iowa has allowed a conference-worst 67.4 points per game. Opponents are shooting 38.5 percent from the floor and 33.7 percent from behind the perimeter, both in the bottom three in the league.

The Hawkeyes looked solid against Drake. Bluder emphasized defense in practice but said intensity was the real reason for the 180.

Iowa scored 18 points off 22 turnovers - most in the first half when Drake scored only 13 points in the first 10 minutes. The Hawkeyes forced two shot clock violations in the first half and finished with 10 blocks and nine steals.

“I think we did a really good job playing help defense and playing together,” Printy said. “We talked about being more intense defensively and letting it lead to our offense.”

Freshman Virginia Johnson did not play because of a concussion. She could miss one to two weeks. Bluder said Johnson sustained the concussion last week in practice, but it wasn't diagnosed until Monday.

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