Nov. 23, 2009
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Complete Release in PDF Format
IOWA CITY – THE SETTING
The Iowa Hawkeyes (3-1) return home Tuesday to face William & Mary (2-1). Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
TICKET INFORMATION
Season ticket prices are $70 for adults, $56 for UI faculty and senior-citizens and $15 for youth (18 and under). UI students are admitted free with a student I.D.
Single-game tickets are $9 for adults. Youth (18 and under) are admitted free for weekday games and are charged $5 for weekend games.
ON YOUR RADIO
Brent Balbinot and Shelley Till will call Sunday’s game for the Hawkeye Radio Network. The game can be heard on AM-800 KXIC, AM-600 WMT and AM-1460 KXNO, and also on the Hawkeye All-Access page of hawkeyesports.com. Balbinot is in his sixth season as Iowa’s play-by-play voice, while Till is in her fifth year providing analysis.
ON YOUR COMPUTER
Hawkeye fans can follow the game via live stats (Gametracker). The “GT” link can be accessed under the “Calendar” tab on the front page of hawkeyesports.com or on the women’s basketball schedule page.
PROMOTIONS
Tuesday’s game will be “Football Fan Appreciation” night. Anyone who shows their Minnesota football ticket stub will be admitted free.
IOWA HISTORY
Iowa has played 1,006 games, since beginning basketball in 1974. Iowa’s overall record is 613-393 (.609). That includes a 309-151 (.672) mark in regular season Big Ten contests and a 287-84 (.774) mark in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Tuesday’s game is the first meeting between the two schools.
SCOUTING WILLIAM & MARY
The William and Mary Tribe are 2-1 this season. In its last game (Sunday), William & Mary rallied from a 23-point first half deficit to defeat Davidson, 74-63 at home. Janine Aldridge scored a game-high 18 points (12 in the second half), along with six steals. Sophomores Katherine DeHenzel and Taysha Pye scored 16 points, while freshman Jaclyn McKenna had 12 points and eight rebounds.
McKenna leads William & Mary with 13.3 points per game. Emily Correal is averaging a double-double, at 10 points and 12.7 rebounds per contest.
Debbie Taylor is in her 11th season as a head coach, and owns a 113-179 record. All of her head coaching experience is at William & Mary.
HAWKEYES RALLY FOR WIN AT NORTHERN IOWA
Iowa used stellar second half shooting to rally past Northern Iowa (Sunday), 81-70 at the McLeod Center. The Hawkeyes shot .556 (15-27) in the second half, including .571 (4-7) from three-point and .938 (15-16) from the free throw line.
Trailing 43-40 with 14:49 left in the game, the Hawkeyes used an 11-0 run to take a 51-44 lead at the 12:22 mark. Northern Iowa fought back to within three (53-50) with 8:33 left, but precise free throw shooting down the stretch gave Iowa the win.
The Hawkeyes trailed by as many as seven, but still managed to win. The game saw six ties and two lead changes.
CAREER DAY FOR WAHLIN
Sophomore Kamille Wahlin poured in a career-high 33 points against Northern Iowa. She also notched career-highs in field goals made (11) and attempted (19), three-pointers made (6) and attempted (10) and free throws made (5) and attempted (6). Her five five three-pointers were just one shy of the school record.
Wahlin led Iowa’s second-half comeback with 21 points on 6-10 shooting, including 4-5 from three point range and all five free throws in the final half.
Wahlin leads the Big Ten in three-pointers made per game (3), ranks second in average minutes played (35.5) and sixth in scoring (17.5).
JOHNSON TIES SCHOOL RECORD
Freshman Morgan Johnson tied a school record with seven blocked shots against Northern Iowa Sunday. Johnson now holds the record with Jerica Watson (vs. Kent State, 12/8/01) and Tangela Smith (at Michigan State, 1/15/95). She currently ranks third in the Big Ten in blocks per game (2.75).
Johnson added 11 points and eight rebounds in the win.
IOWA VS. UNI TIP-INS
? Freshmen Theairra Taylor (fractured eye socket) and Gabby Machado (sprained ankle) both returned to action Sunday after being sidelined with injuries. Taylor finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and two steals in 24 minutes of action. She had eight points in the final two minutes. Machado played three minutes and finished with two points.
? Three of Iowa’s four leading scorers were freshmen, including Jaime Printy (12), Theairra Taylor (12) and Morgan Johnson (11).
? Iowa shot a season-high .519 (28-54) from the field, .471 (8-17) from three-point and .810 (17-21) from the free throw line.
? The Hawkeyes had four players log at least 30 minutes. Kamille Wahlin played all 40 minutes, while Kelly Krei and Jaime Printy played 32. Morgan Johnson saw 31 minutes of action.
INJURY UPDATE
Senior JoAnn Hamlin is out indefinitely after having a blood clot removed from her right leg.
Junior Kachine Alexander is expected to miss one month with a stress fracture in her right leg.
Sophomore Hannah Draxten will be sidelined for approximately one more week with a herniated disc in her back.
Sophomore Shante Jones is questionable for Tuesday’s game with a foot injury.
ALEXANDER’S NUMBERS WILL BE MISSED
Junior Kachine Alexander had a solid start to the season. Alexander has recorded a double-double in each of Iowa’s first three games, and was averaging 21 points and 15.7 rebounds, before suffering a stress fracture in her right leg.
Alexander currently leads the Big Ten in rebounding (15.7) and offensive rebounds (8.3). She also ranks second in scoring (21) and defensive rebounds (7.3), third in minutes played (34.6) and fifth in assists (4.3).
FILLING UP THE STAT SHEET
Freshman Jaime Printy has been everywhere for the Hawkeyes.
Printy has started all four games, and has registered at least five rebounds and three assists in each game.
She grabbed five rebounds and dished out six assists against Santa Clara, and followed with a 16 point, seven rebound and four assist effort against Illinois State.
Printy netted five points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals against Kansas.
Sunday at Northern Iowa, Printy added 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.
Printy leads the team and ranks fourth in Big Ten assists (4.5). She is the team’s third-leading rebounder (23) and fourth -leading scorer (8.8).
UNDERCLASSMEN CONTRIBUTING
Iowa’s freshmen and sophomore class are putting up big numbers for the Hawkeyes this season.
Hawkeye underclassmen are responsible for 78 percent of the minutes played, 76 percent of the blocks, 73 percent of the points, 72 percent of the steals, 64 percent of the assists and 56 percent of the rebounds.
POSITION CHANGES
Because of injuries, a couple Hawkeyes played new positions for the first time in their careers – high school or college.
Junior Kelsey Cermak earned her first career start at Northern Iowa, and played the small forward position. Cermak has tradionally been a post player.
Freshman Trisha Nesbitt, who has been a point guard during her entire basketball career, saw 19 minutes of action as Iowa’s shooting guard.
ALEXANDER NAMED CO-BIG TEN PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Junior Kachine Alexander was named co-Big Ten Player of the Week Nov. 16 after earning MVP honors at the KCRG-TV9 Hawkeye Challenge.
Alexander recorded double-doubles in each of Iowa’s first two games. She tied a Hawkeye Challenge tournament record by grabbing 18 rebounds (nine offensive, nine defensive), along with netting 19 points in Iowa’s season-opening win over Santa Clara. Both her 19 points and 18 rebounds were game highs.
Alexander followed on Sunday with a 21 point, 12 rebound (nine offensive, three defensive) performance in the championship game against Illinois State. Alexander was clutch down the stretch at the free-throw line, making 13-16 attempts from the charity stripe.
WAHLIN LANDS ON ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Sophomore Kamille Wahlin was named to the KCRG-TV9 Hawkeye Challenge all-tournament team after two solid performances to open the season.
Against Santa Clara, Wahlin netted 13 points and added three rebounds.
Wahlin was clutch down the stretch in the championship against Illinois State, scoring seven points during Iowa’s crucial 12-2 run in the final three minutes of the second half to give the Hawkeyes the victory. Wahlin drained a three-pointer with 3:46 left to give Iowa a one-point lead at 64-63. She then hit a jumper with 37 second left, extending Iowa’s lead to five points at 70-65. Wahlin added two free throws on the next trip down the court to seal the win.
PRESEASON RANKINGS
Iowa was picked to finish fifth in the Big Ten by both the league coaches and media. Ohio State was tabbed as the favorite to win the Big Ten, with Michigan State coming in second.
LOOKING AT THE ROSTER
The Hawkeyes return two full-time starters, one part-time starter and a total of seven letterwinners from last year’s squad.
Iowa returns 43.7% of its scoring and 56.4% of its rebounding from a year ago. The Hawkeyes also return 57% of their assists, 52.5% of their steals and 50.3% of their minutes played from the 2008-09 season.
WELCOME TO IOWA CITY
The Hawkeyes welcome five freshmen to the squad this season, one at each position.
Trisha Nesbitt (Ames, IA), will most likely play point guard for Iowa this season. She was a three-time all-conference and two-time first team all-district and all-state selection.
Jaime Printy (Marion, IA) could play both guard positions. She became the youngest player (15) ever to verbally commit to the Iowa Women’s Basketball team. She also played high school basketball at Coach Bluder’s alma mater (Linn-Mar). She was a three-time consensus first team all-state, all-district, all-metro and all-conference pick.
Theairra Taylor (St. Paul, MN) is a 5-11 guard. She was a finalist for 2009 Miss Minnesota Basketball award and was the 2009 St. Paul City Conference Player of the Year. Taylor also earned Associated Press and Pioneer Press first team all-state honors.
Gabby Machado (Pontiac, MI) ranked in the Top 10 in the state of Michigan’s 2009 recruiting class. She was a Detroit News Class “A” all-state honorable mention selection.
Morgan Johnson (Platte County, MO) was the Miss Show Me Basketball Award winner, given to the top prep senior in the state of Missouri. She was also named the 2009 Direnna Award winner, given to top prep in the Kansas City Area, and the Kansas City Star Scholar Athlete of the Year.
HOME GROWN HAWKEYES
Four Hawkeyes prepped in the state of Iowa. Those players are junior Kelsey Cermak (Norwalk), sophomore Kelly Krei (Iowa City) and freshmen Trisha Nesbitt (Ames) and Jaime Printy (Marion).
LAND OF 10,000 HAWKEYES
The 2009-10 edition of the Iowa Women’s Basketball team has four players from the state of Minnesota. They include junior Kachine Alexander (Minneapolis), sophomores Kamille Wahlin (Crookston) and Hannah Draxten (Fergus Falls) and freshman Theairra Taylor (St. Paul).
EXPANDED MEDIA COVERAGE
Iowa fans will have a chance to see 21 of the 29 regular season games, either on television or webstream.
The Hawkeyes will have 13 games televised by either the Big Ten Network, KCRG TV-9, Mediacom or ESPN2. In addition, 12 games will be streamed live on BigTenNetwork.com.
All Big Ten Tournament and NCAA Tournament games will be televised, as well.
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT TICKETS ON SALE
All-session tickets for the 2010 Big Ten Men’s Women’s Basketball Tournament are on sale. Tickets can be purchased at all 11 Big Ten university ticket offices, Conseco Fieldhouse box office, Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis is the site of the women’s tournament from March 4-7.
All-session tickets are available for $45 through January 18, which marks a 30-percent discount off the regular price of $65.
HAWK TALK WITH Lisa Bluder
“Hawk Talk With Lisa Bluder” is the weekly radio call-in show of Iowa’s head women’s basketball coach. Hosted by Brent Balbinot, the radio voice of the Hawkeyes, “Hawk Talk With Lisa Bluder” is 60 minutes of discussion about Iowa women’s basketball. All shows begin at 6 p.m. and originate from Bob’s Your Uncle restaurant on North Dodge Street (Highway 1) in Iowa City, and are open to the public. Everyone who attends receives a free game ticket and discounts on “Show Night Specials” on the Bob’s Your Uncle menu.
Dates are listed below.
November 23 and 30, December 7, 14, 21 and 30, January 4, 11, 18 and 25, February 1, 8, 15 and 22 and March 1.
THE Lisa Bluder SHOW
“The Lisa Bluder Show,” featuring Iowa Head Coach Lisa Bluder and KCRG-TV9’s John Campbell, will air four times during the regular season on KCRG-TV9. Dates and times are listed below. Thursday, December 31 – 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, January 16 – 5 p.m.
Sunday, January 20 – 5 p.m.
UP NEXT
Iowa travels to Reno, NV, for the Nugget Classic during Thanksgiving break. Iowa will take on West Virginia Friday, Nov. 27 at 6 p.m., then either Columbia or Nevada, Saturday, Nov. 28 at either 7 or 9 p.m. All times listed are central.