Dec. 9, 2011
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — About the only cause for concern with the University of Iowa women’s basketball team Friday is if the pep band will ever forgive freshman guard Samantha Logic.
Logic had the basketball in her hands for the final eight seconds, dribbling inoffensively near midcourt, while a chant of “the band wants 100” rained down on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The band — and the Hawkeyes — had to settle for 98 during a 98-45 victory against Western Illinois, snapping a two-game losing streak in the process.
“You know, (head caoch) JD (Gravina) took that (Western Illinois) program over and we didn’t need to score (100),” UI head coach Lisa Bluder said. “I think it was the right thing to do.”
Eleven players saw action for Iowa (6-4 overall). Junior guard Jaime Printy poured in 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field; she was 5-of-8 from 3-point range. Also in double figures for the Hawkeyes were Melissa Dixon (15), Kamille Wahlin (14) and Morgan Johnson, who scored the game’s first six points and finished with 10 points in eight minutes.
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The Hawkeyes shot 49.4 percent from the field (38-of-77), with 27 assists out of the 38 field goals. Wahlin and Kathryn Reynolds had five assists, Printy and Logic added four.
“I’m proud of my team and the way it bounced back tonight,” Bluder said. “We only had one day of preparation and I thought we came out ready to perform well, and I thought we did. I thought we pushed the ball well; I thought we distributed well. We crashed (the boards) better.”
Iowa’s rebound total of 57 was nine more than its previous season-best. Logic and Virginia Johnson led the Hawkeyes with nine rebounds; Kely Krei and Theairra Taylor added eight.
Western Illinois was held to a season-low 45 points and the Leathernecks shot just 19.7 percent from the field (13-of-66).
“I thought we did a good job of keeping our intensity high,” Bluder said. “Sometimes you can get a big lead (Iowa led 53-23 at halftime) and just go through the motions. We didn’t do that tonight. We kept the defensive intensity and we kept executing on the offensive side. I’m really happy with the intensity we played the entire game with, because that’s not always easy to do.”
It was another big night for Dixon, who set a career high in points Wednesday at Iowa State (11), only to surpass that total by four points against Western Illinois.
“She’s an offensive-minded kid, but I hate to say that because I think she plays really good defense, too,” Bluder said. “She hawks the ball well and gives good pressure defense. She’s a gunner and she’s going to put it up if you leave her open and I like that mentality.”
Iowa returns to the road for the third time in its last four outings to play at Bradley on Saturday, Dec. 17. The Hawkeyes won last season, 91-53, in Iowa City. It will be game No. 11 during a season that promises to show more growth from this UI team.
“We are going to get better,” Bluder said. “There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to grow, we are going to get better as the year goes on. Maybe we are not where we want to be right now, but we are going to get there. I have complete faith that we will.”