A Pair of Three's...and a Big Win

A Pair of Three's...and a Big Win

Nov. 28, 2009

RENO, Nev. – One night ago, the Iowa women’s basketball team failed to get a good look at a three-pointer and lost 69-66 to West Virginia.

On Saturday night, Bluder’s Bunch sank a pair in the game’s final minute to give Iowa a very, very hard-fought 72-69 victory over Columbia in the consolation game of the 2009 Nugget Classic.

This one was knock-down, drag-out hoops from start to finish. Then, Jaime Printy dropped in a three with 58 seconds left to play to tie the game at 59-all. Forty-two seconds later, Kamille Wahlin gave Iowa the victory when she sank her attempt behind the arc.

Knock-down, drag-out, knocked `em down.

The three-pointers were the fourth of the night for both Hawkeyes. For Wahlin, it pushed her point total to 18, a number that matched that by Morgan Johnson for the team high. For Printy, it pushed the freshman’s total to 12. Theairra Taylor added 11 for the Hawkeyes, who shot just 39 percent from the field.

However, Bluder’s squad blistered the nets at the charity stripe, knocking down all 16 of their freebies. The also outrebounded CU – thanks to a game-high 12 by Johnson and seven more by Taylor – and they needed to because they turned the ball over 21 times to just 13 for Columbia.

The victory pushes Iowa’s record to 5-2.

The game’s first half was a tussle that included six ties and four lead changes. Iowa’s largest lead was at 12-9 when Morgan Johnson sank a jumper at the 15:37 mark. Columbia’s biggest margin was four, 25-21, with 7:02 left on the clock.

CU took a 34-31 lead when Lauren Dwyer sank a three-points with just more than two minutes before intermission. Thiearra Taylor trimmed that to 34-33 with 59 seconds to play.

Johnson was leading all scorers at halftime with eight points. Printy and Nesbitt had six each for Iowa, who shot just 35 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes. Iowa had a 20-17 advantage on the boards at the break, but had also been charged with nine turnovers.

Iowa returns to action Wednesday when the Hawkeyes entertain Boston College in the 2009 Big Ten-ACC Challenge. Game time in Carver-Hawkeye Arena is set for 7:30 p.m.