May 27, 2007
ATHENS, GREECE – – The Iowa women’s basketball team dropped an 80-60 exhibition game to the Greek National Team in front of approximately 300 fans Sunday night in Athens, Greece. The contest is one of three exhibitions against Greece on the Hawkeyes’ 11-day foreign tour.
Kristi Smith scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half to lead all Hawkeye scorers. She also had five assists and three steals. Wendy Ausdemore tallied 15 points and four rebounds, while Megan Skouby added eight points and six rebounds. Jenee Graham, Iowa’s leading rebounder last season, pulled down a game-high seven rebounds.
“Tonight was a good experience for our basketball team,” said Smith. “We played a veteran and talented basketball team. We struggled with our shots and rebounding in the first half, but played much better in the second half,” said Smith.
Greece took advantage of a 6:20 Hawkeye scoring drought in the first quarter, scoring 12-straight points to take a early 17-10 advantage and had a 19-12 lead after the first period.
Sophomore transfer JoAnn Hamlin, who played her first game for the Black and Gold, was plagued with foul trouble in the first stanza. The native of Douglass, KS, was whistled for three fouls in three minutes of the contest. Hamlin played a majority of the second half, netting nine of her 11 points in the second half.
“I came out playing physical defense on the ball and I thought the referees were going to let fouls slide, they didn’t, but I was able to calm down in the second half and back into the groove of things. We’re looking forward to playing this team two more times.”
Greece scored a number of baskets in transition against the Hawkeyes tonight. Greece recorded scoring runs of 12-3 and 7-0 in the third quarter to build a 55-32 advantage.
Iowa attempted to mount a comeback, posting an 18-6 scoring surge spanning the third and fourth quarters to close the deficit to 11 (61-50) early in the fourth quarter, but would get no closer.
The Hawkeye team will spend most of the day on Monday sightseeing the Acropolis in downtown Athens before returning to the court to meet Greece again Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. CDT).
To view daily player blogs, photo galleries and video postcards from the Hawkeyes’ trip to Greece, click HERE.
Scoring Summary 1 2 3 4 FIowa 12 15 14 19 60Greece 19 17 23 21 80
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