Jan. 31, 2008
Post-Game Notes
Iowa’s win tonight coupled with results around the league places the Hawkeyes in a three-way first place tie with Purdue and Ohio State with 7-3 Big Ten records. Iowa will host Indiana (6-3), who is only a half game back of first place, Sunday at 1 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game will be televised live in Eastern Iowa on KCRG-TV9.
Tonight’s win was Iowa’s fifth-straight victory, its longest winning streak of the season. Iowa improved to 5-4 in games away from Iowa City tonight.
The Hawkeyes have won 13 consecutive contests over the Wildcats. Iowa improved to 39-12 all-time against Northwestern. Iowa also improved to 19-5 in games played at Evanston.
Megan Skouby scored 12 of her season-high 23 points in the first half. She entered tonight’s game averaging 19.7 points in three previous contests against Northwestern. Skouby was 9-10 from the charity stripe tonight. Skouby has netted double figures in five of Iowa’s last six games.
Northwestern made a surge midway through the second half, but Kristi Smith made nine straight Iowa points to rebuild a double digit advantage. Smith scored nine of her 15 points during that stretch.
Northwestern shot 63 percent (17-27) from the field the final 20 minutes. The Wildcats started the game shooting 13 percent (3-24) from the floor.
Jenee Graham pulled down 11 rebounds tonight, marking the second time this season she has secured double digit boards (16 vs. Mississippi State). Graham is Iowa’s second leading rebounder.
Wendy Ausdemore finished with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Jenee Graham matched a career high with seven assists. Tonight was the third time in her career she assisted on seven field goals in a single game. Also recording a season-high seven assists tonight was Johanna Solverson.
Iowa only had 11 turnovers tonight. The Hawkeyes had a season-low nine turnovers in their last game vs. Michigan last Sunday.
Iowa improves to 10-2 when holding opponents to 58 points or less. Iowa also improves to 14-2 when scoring 60 points or more.
Iowa assisted on 11 of its 13 first-half field goals and 19 of its 25 for the game. Iowa recorded all 19 assists despite Iowa’s assist leader, Kristi Smith, not collecting a single assist.
Northwestern trailed 40-21, but went on a 13-1 run to cut the Hawkeye lead to seven (41-34) with 10 minutes left in the game. Iowa went on a 6:41 field goal scoring drought during the Wildcat surge.
Both teams started the game ice-cold from the floor; Iowa missed its first seven field goal attempts, while Northwestern missed on its first four. Iowa held Northwestern to only two points (1-12 FG) the first 9:30 of the game. Furthermore, five different Hawkeyes scored Iowa’s first five field goals of the contest. Iowa led by as many as 23 points in the first half.