March 29, 2005
It was raining inside the Hammons Student Center Monday night…raining three-point baskets for the home team, Southwest Missouri State, who used 17 long-range jumpers to put an end to the 2004-05 season for Coach Lisa Bluder’s Iowa Hawkeyes by handing Bluder’s Bunch a 89-80 defeat in a semifinal game of the SportsView WNIT.
SMS started white hot and pretty much stayed on fire for the 40 minutes. The Lady Bears made 11 of 15 three-point attempts to claim a 51-40 halftime lead, a margin that was built in great measure as a result of a 24-5 run midway through the stanza that put SMS ahead 34-19 with eight minutes to play.
Iowa counted with a 19-6 run to open the second half. That streak was capped by a three from Iowa’s Crystal Smith that gave the Hawkeyes a 59-57 lead with just more than 14 minutes to play.
But the hot hands of SMS were just too much for Bluder’s squad.
“I’m thinking, `They have to (miss a 3-pointer).’ I’m a math major and I know the law of averages,” Iowa senior Jamie Cavey told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. For the record, 17 of 25 is shooting at a 68 percent clip and successful shooting at that rate – as college basketball fans know – wins a lot of games.
“I think our kids played with incredible poise in that situation and I’m really proud of them, especially these two seniors (Cavey and Jenna Armstrong),” Bluder said after her team’s post-season run came to an end and with it a season that concludes with the Hawkeyes having posted a 23-10 record.
Iowa was led in scoring by Cavey, who dropeed in 20 points to go along with a game-high 13 rebounds. She also had five assists. Smith added 18 poinst, Johanna Solversonn 14 and Armstrong 12.
Iowa was almost SMS’s equal behind the arc, dropping in half of their 18 attempts.
SMS’s Jenni Lingor paced all scorers with 32 points, a mark that was boosted by 8-of-11 shooting from behind the arc. K.C. Cowgill added 21 for the home team who will play West Virginia in the WNIT championship game. WVU defeated Kentucky, 80-75, in double overtime.