Hawkeyes’ road trip continues

IOWA CITY — The late Yogi Berra has nothing on Kali Peschel.

'We've learned a lot,' Peschel said of the first one-fourth of the Iowa Hawkeyes' women's basketball season. 'And we have a lot to learn.'

Iowa (6-1) continues its extended road trip with an encounter with Virginia (5-2) in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at 7 p.m. (Iowa time) Wednesday at Charlottesville, Va.

The contest marks the end of a five-game run away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes started their in-state series with a win at Northern Iowa on Nov. 22, then won two of three at the Lone Star Shootout over Thanksgiving weekend at Austin, Texas.

Iowa's lone loss was a controversial double-overtime decision against George Washington in the middle game at Austin.

With the game tied, Alexa Kastanek was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer as time expired in regulation, but the foul was waved off and the game continued.

'In 32 years, I've never seen a game end like that,' Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'They misapplied the rule. Alexa should have been shooting three free throws, and I bet she'd have made at least one of them.

'But they waved it off, and you can't go back.'

The Hawkeyes bounced back to beat Houston on Saturday, returned home, then hit the road again. Iowa last faced the Cavaliers in 2001.

Wednesday's game is Iowa's eighth in 19 days. That's too much, too soon, in Bluder's opinion.

'We're playing too many non-conference games,' Bluder said. 'I think we all need to back down from 30 (total) games to 28. It's hard on the student-athlete. We're walking on a tightrope, basically.'

Ally Disterhoft continues to lead the Hawkeyes in scoring at 15.9 points per game. She needs 12 points to move into Iowa's top 30 for career scoring.

Kastanek is next at 12.3 points per game; Chase Coley adds 11.6.

In last year's Sweet 16 campaign, the Hawkeyes posted an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.47 to 1. This year, it's 0.99 to 1.

'We need to get better at that,' Coley said. 'A lot of that stuff is mental, not getting to the right spots in our offense. It comes with experience.'

Virginia has lost two straight games after a 5-0 start, against Rutgers and Tulane. Faith Randolph paces the Cavaliers at 13.1 points per game.

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