Dec. 19, 2006
Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
IOWA CITY — It was raining three’s inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena Tuesday night, however, the hot hands belonged to the visiting Northern Iowa Panthers, who sank an Arena record 14 three pointers en route to a 83-62 victory over Lisa Bluder’s Iowa Hawkeyes.
The victory was only the second win in 12 games all-time in the series for UNI and the first in school history in Iowa City. It was also the fourth win in a row for the Panthers and evened their record at 5-5.
The loss was Iowa’s third straight overall and third in a row at home. The Hawkeyes will carry a 7-5 record with them to Des Moines on Friday when they square off against Drake in the Knapp Center.
The Panthers were in command of the game from start to finish in good measure as a result of their white-hot shooting: The visitors drained 28 of 51 field game attempts including a school-record 14 of 25 attempts from behind the arc. UNI’s previous record for three point baskets in a game was 11.
The previous record for three point baskets by a team in Carver-Hawkeye Arena was 11. Iowa nailed 11 against Colorado during the 2000-01 season.
Iowa was also generous. The Hawkeyes committed 20 turnovers in the game, but 15 came in the first half alone when the visitors were racing to leads that often reached the mid-20s. Iowa managed to trim the margin to 42-27 at intermission.
However, the Panthers went right back to the well in the second stanza, taking a 47-27 lead at the 18:22 mark of the second half when Tara King knocked down a three. The Panthers’ lead surpassed 30 five minutes later when King followed a three-pointer by Megan Keefe with one of her own to put UNI ahead 66-35.
The Panthers were successful on seven of 11 three-point attempts made during the final 20 minutes.
Keefe paced a group of four Panthers who scored in double-figures with 19 points. Sarah Larsen added 15, Jessie Biggs 12, and Traci Ollendieck 12.
Ollendieck, who was a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc, was one of seven different Panthers who made three-point baskets: King, Larsen, Biggs and Nicole Clausen each had two.
Iowa was led in scoring by Jenee Graham’s 14 points. The fiery small forward also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to register her first “double-double” as a Hawkeye. Megan Skouby and Kristi Smith, Krista VandeVenter, and Nicole VanderPol each scored 10 points for the Hawkeyes. VanderPol’s total was a career high.
The Hawkeyes won the battle of the boards, 35-24, and outscored the Panthers at the charity stripe, 16-13, but were victimized by 19 UNI assists, many that found a black jersey open behind the arc.