Iowa Downs UNI to Win Third Game in 5 Days

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Dec. 22, 2010

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IOWA CITY, Iowa —The Iowa women’s basketball team can take a collective sigh of relief heading into the holidays, after it held off a pesky Northern Iowa squad for a 75-64 victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night.

Playing its third game in five days, the Hawkeyes were sharp in the first half, building a 48-29 lead at the break. Iowa, however, hit a wall in the second half, allowing the Panthers to make it a game.

“I thought the first half we executed very well,” said Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder. “I really liked the way we played during the stretch. Even the last few seconds of the half, just trying to take advantage of every opportunity within that segment.

“I thought UNI played extremely well, battled back. Their defense intensified the second half, like you know it’s going to. These are emotional in-state games. You should get everybody’s best shot.”

After shooting 50 percent from the floor in the first half, the Hawkeyes were ice cold to start half two, missing 2-of-their-first-12 shots. Northern Iowa capitalized, as an Erin Brocka three pointer trimmed the deficit to 10 (50-40) before five straight points by Jacqui Kalin and a Rachel Madrigal jumper made the score 52-47 with 13:15 left.

“It definitely was a grind,” said Jaime Printy, who notched her third 20 point game of the season in the win. “We knew that they weren’t going to give up and they made a good run on us. I think we handled it the right way and we stayed focused.”

Printy and Kamille Wahlin then broke Iowa out of its shooting slump with back-to-back triples to push the advantage to 58-47 with 11:56 to play. The Hawkeyes then pushed their lead back to 12 on a Kalli Hansen jumper from the top of the key at the 9:23 mark, but the Panthers would wilt.

UNI scored eight of the next 10 points to get the score back to single digits at 66-60. It was still a six point margin with 1:23 to play following back-to-back buckets by K.K. Armstrong, but Printy drained a three-pointer — her fourth of the night — from the right corner to cement the Hawkeye victory.

In the first half, Iowa appeared to take complete control of the contest. With the score knotted at 17, the Hawkeyes went on a 14-5 run over a five minute span to make the score 31-22. The squad then extended the run to 31-12 to close out the half to take a 48-29 lead into the locker room.

Printy and Wahlin accounted for 31 of the team’s first half points with Printy netting 17 on 5-of-9 shooting. For the game, Printy finished with 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting, which was one point off a career-high, while Wahlin scored 17.

The Hawkeyes built their big first half lead by shooting 50 percent from the floor, but in the second half, Iowa made just 9-of-31 field goals for a 39.7 clip. For the game, the squad made 25-of-63 field goals to finish at 40 percent.

Iowa will now have an eight day break before opening Big Ten Conference play on the road at Penn State on Dec. 30.