Iowa Wins 5th Straight With Season-High 93 Points

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Feb. 27, 2011

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By RICHIE ZAWISTOWSKI

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Two days after winning its final home game of the season on senior night, the University of Iowa women’s basketball team won its final road game of the regular season by knocking off Indiana, 93-79, at Assembly Hall. The Hawkeyes shot a blistering 55-percent from the field and improved to 22-7 overall.

“We had a great offensive night,” said UI head coach Lisa Bluder. “We shot the ball extremely well, 55-percent from the field, 56-percent from 3-point range; we did a really nice job. It was a fun offensive feel out there. I think our team really clicked and that’s exactly how you want your team feeling about their offense going into the Big Ten Tournament.”

Senior Kachine Alexander racked up her 33rd career double-double, putting up 27 points along with 10 rebounds. Sophomore Jaime Printy dropped 28 points on 8-of-11 shooting two nights after registering a career-high 32.

“That is a game I hope she’ll remember for a long time,” said Bluder of Printy. “If I remember right, she had a pretty good game here last year as well, so maybe she likes playing here in Bloomington. She’s gotten so much more confident as the year has gone on. She’s gotten so smart and is very, very confident. Jaime spends the time and is in the gym all the time so she really has earned this.”

While Printy and the rest of the Hawkeyes were hot from the field, Iowa was also hot from the foul line, making 26 of 32.

“We attack so hard to the basket and we try to draw fouls,” said Bluder. “That’s one of the goals of our offense is to draw fouls and to get to the free throw line because we’re so good there. We did sit in a zone a little bit which helps protect against committing fouls a little bit more than when we play player to player, but overall I think we attacked very strongly tonight.”

Iowa had 38 points in the first half as it went into the halftime break with a 38-34 lead before erupting for 55 points in the second half.

The Hawkeyes started the second half on an 11-3 run to stretch the lead to 49-37 after a 3-pointer by Alexander three minutes in to the half.

Indiana answered with a run of its own, closing the gap to three points, 53-50, with 13:26 remaining, forcing Iowa to call timeout.

The Hawkeyes responded and used a 14-2 run over the next five minutes to break the game open and push the lead to 67-52 with 8:47 remaining. Indiana got no closer than 11 points throughout the remainder of the contest as Iowa coasted to the victory to close out the season.

Iowa will now prepare for the Big Ten Tournament, and has a first-round bye thanks to the success in the regular season.

“I think we’re playing good basketball right now,” said Bluder. “We earned the first-round bye so that’s exciting for our players. It will be interesting to see who we play, it looks like we’ll be playing either Ohio State or Wisconsin — depends on what happens with the Michigan game at Illinois. We’ll be watching that game. If we have to play Ohio State in the first round, the way these two teams are playing, it might be the championship game. I think Ohio State and Iowa might be the two hottest teams in the Big Ten.”

The Hawkeyes closed the regular season with five consecutive wins. Iowa’s 93 points are the most for a Hawkeye team since a 103-93 win over Wisconsin Feb. 25, 2007.