Makenzie Meyer ‘a difference-maker’ again for Iowa women's basketball

IOWA CITY — Suddenly, it seems Makenzie Meyer can't miss.

It started in Indianapolis. It continued at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

Meyer hit 4 of 7 shots from long range and scored 18 points to complement Megan Gustafson's typically brilliant inside work Sunday. The result was a 68-52 win for the eighth-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes over Missouri in an NCAA Tournament second-round women's basketball game.

'I didn't shoot that well in the regular season, and it really bothered me,' said Meyer, a junior from Mason City. 'But I've been in the gym a lot, and each game I get more and more confidence.'

At the end of the regular season, Meyer was shooting 31.8 percent (42 of 132) from long range. In the five games since, she is 18 of 35 — 51.4 percent.

She was 9 of 21 during the Big Ten tournament, then drilled 9 of 14 in two NCAA games, helping lead the Hawkeyes (28-6) to their first Sweet 16 since 2015.

'I'm so happy right now,' Meyer said. 'This is the most fun I've had in a basketball game. I know it sounds corny and cheesy, but we all love each other so much, and we don't want it to end.

The Hawkeyes advance to Greensboro, N.C., where they will face North Carolina State or Kentucky on Saturday.

Meyer has averaged 13.2 points in the last five games.

'She's been a difference-maker,' Gustafson said. 'To have Makenzie making critical shots, her confidence is sky-high right now.'

Tania Davis said, 'It's been crazy. We have the utmost confidence in Makenzie anyway, but to get her on this kind of roll, it really opens things up for Megan, and the rest of us.'

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