Nov. 1, 2006
IOWA CITY — Wendy Ausdemore scored a team-high 21 points, and Megan Skouby and Lindsey Nyenhuis added 18 each to lead the nationally ranked Iowa women’s basketball team to an 88-55 victory over Northern State in the Hawkeyes’ first exhibition games of the 2006-07 season.
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“I thought that our team played well for the first time out. We haven’t been up and down for that much all year, so you never know what’s going to happen when you go out and try to do that in front of people. I was very happy with our effort.”
Lisa Bluder
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Ausdemore, a 6-foot-2 sophomore forward from Neola, sank seven of 14 field goal attempts and six of seven attempts from the charity stripe in her highest scoring game as a collegian. Ausdemore also grabbed eight rebounds, blocked a pair of shots and was credited with two steals.
Skouby, the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year a year ago and a pre-season all-Big Ten selection, was good on eight of 17 field goal attempts, grabbed seven rebounds, had four assists, three blocked shots and two steals. Nyenhuis sank six field goals in nine tries – and all six came from behind the three-point arc. She was a perfect 5-5 from behind the arc in the first half. The sophomore guard from Grand Rapids, Mich., made eight three pointers in 14 games as a freshman.
Kristi Smith was the only other Hawkeye to score in double-figures. The sophomore point guard scored 15. The only other big number on Iowa’s box score were an “8” in the rebound column and a “7” in the assist column junior forward Jenee Graham’s line.
The Hawkeyes led from start to finish, they limited Northern State to 35 percent success from the field and played unselfish basketball as evidence by the 25 assists they were given credit.
“I thought that our team played well for the first time out,” said UI Head Coach Lisa Bluder.
“We haven’t been up and down for that much all year, so you never know what’s going to happen when you go out and try to do that in front of people. I was very happy with our effort.”
Northern State was led by Miranda Boepple and Jessica Deinert, both contributing 10 points. Boepple also shared a team-high six rebounds with Carolin Becker. Noelle Hall, who was picked as the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Pre-Season Player of the Year, was limited to seven points and four rebounds. In fact, Iowa held Hall scoreless until the 15:48 mark of the second half. Hall missed her first five field goal attempts.
Iowa returns to action Monday (Nov. 6) against Concordia. Tipoff is scheduled for shortly after 6:30 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game is the Hawkeyes’ second and final exhibition game.
Bluder’s squad opens its regular season on Nov. 11 against Missouri State in first round action of the WBCA Classic in Kansas City.