Dec. 28, 2008
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by Derek Sawvell
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Rebounds were hard to come by for the University of Iowa women’s basketball team in its Big Ten home-opener as it lost to Purdue, 69-60, Sunday afternoon inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Purdue out-rebounded the Hawkeyes 40-33 including 18 offensive rebounds.
“We’re not a good rebounding team,” said Purdue head coach Sharon Versyp. “But we got to the loose balls and it shows our team the advantage you can have when you get the rebounds.”
“They were aggressive and very physical defensively,” said Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder. “Rebounding continues to be a problem for us.”
The win marks the 300th Big Ten regular-season victory for the Boilermakers as they moved to 2-0 in conference play and 8-4 on the season. Iowa fell to 1-1 in Big Ten play and 8-5 overall.
Iowa was led by the trio of Kachine Alexander, Kristi Smith and Wendy Ausdemore. Smith paced the team with 16 points while Ausdemore scored 13. Alexander scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Purdue was led by the inside tandem of Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton and Danielle Campbell. Wisdom-Hylton scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Campbell had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.
“Their inside play dominated against our inside play and we had no answer,” said Bluder. “We acted like we were shocked by the aggressive play.”
“I got my Christmas gift,” said Versyp. “We can score down low and they were able to do that very effectively.”
In a tightly contested first half, rebounds told the story as Purdue out-rebounded Iowa 23-16, including 10 offensive rebounds leading to four second-chance points for the Boilermakers.
“In the first half we really set the tone on the boards,” said Versyp.
Iowa’s largest lead of the half was its quick 4-0 start behind a JoAnn Hamlin bucket and two free-throws by Alexander. Purdue’s Campbell answered with four points of her own the tie the game before Smith hit her first three-pointer of the half to help Iowa regain the lead, 7-4.
Wisdom-Hylton then scored the next six points from the post for the Boilermakers as the lead came back to Purdue, 10-7.
Megan Skouby answered with four points of her own to bring the lead back to the Hawkeyes 11-10 with 12:37 left to play in the half.
Smith hit her second three-pointer of the game to give Iowa a 16-13 lead and she would later get fouled while attempting another three-pointer. She converted the free-throws to give Iowa a 21-19 lead with 2:14 to play in the half.
FahKara Malone scored six straight points for the Boilermakers to tie the game again at 21-21. Both teams traded baskets before Purdue’s Chantel Poston hit a jumper at the buzzer to give the Boilermakers a 25-23 halftime edge.
After another three-point basket by Smith gave the Hawkeyes a 28-25 lead, they Boilermakers went on a 15-4 run while feeding the ball inside to Wisdom-Hylton and Campbell, resulting in a 40-32 lead. Ausdemore began to heat up for Iowa, scoring eight points during a six-minute span to cut the Purdue lead to five, 50-45, with 6:32 to play.
Purdue then capitalized on two Iowa turnovers and two three-point plays from Wisdom-Hylton and Campbell after two offensive rebounds to anchor a 10-0 run resulting in a 60-45 lead.
“We got within five and it’s too bad we didn’t take advantage of it,” said Bluder. “We had four mental errors in a row.”
Purdue would not look back as they held off the Hawkeyes and made free-throws down the stretch to leave Carver-Hawkeye Arena with a nine-point victory.
Iowa’s next game is on the road at Indiana on Jan. 4 at 3:05 p.m.