Hawkeyes turn to defense on the road

EAST LANSING - Those beautiful, arcing 3-pointers and that high-scoring offense?

Yeah, Iowa didn't have those Sunday.

But the Hawkeyes still left the Breslin Center with a 52-50 victory.

'This wasn't Iowa basketball; it isn't the way we traditionally win,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'But a win is a win. We won with defense and rebounding today.”

Iowa (12-3, 5-1 Big Ten) built up a nine-point lead with 7:36 left, 47-38, and then held on against Michigan State (9-9, 1-6).

The final minutes took forever, complete with a lengthy video review, and the outcome was put in doubt when Anna Morrissey hit a 3-pointer to cut the Hawkeye lead to one, 49-48, with 19 seconds left.

'There were some unusual clock situations going on,” Bluder said. 'We didn't let it rattle us.”

Melissa Dixon hit a pair of free throws with seven seconds left.

'That's a senior,” Bluder said. 'We we want her to have the ball in her hands in that situation.”

On the other end, Samantha Logic fouled the Spartans rather than give them a chance to launch a potential game-tying 3-pointer.

Tori Jankoska hit both foul shots to make it 51-50, but Iowa got the pass inbounds to Ally Disterhoft, who hit 1-of-2 on the line with one second left.

'You just have to be calm,” Logic said. 'We executed it really well and ended up with the win.”

Iowa won in East Lansing, Mich., for the first time since the 2003-04 season and moved to 5-1 in league play for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

Dixon and Logic each had 13 points, and Disterhoft added 12 points. Iowa shot just 3 of 19 from 3-point range.

'We're always going to take an ugly win over a pretty loss,” Logic said. 'We're going to take it, and keep it rolling, hopefully.”

Iowa hosts Michigan (12-5, 4-2) at 8 p.m. Thursday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game is on BTN.