March 3, 2013
- Iowa at Northwestern Video Highlights and Reaction
- Read the March issue of Hawk Talk Monthly
- IowaWomensBasketball.com
- 2013 NCAA 1st and 2nd Round Information
- Order Iowa Women’s Basketball Tickets Online
- Download your Iowa Hawkeye iPhone/ipad app!
- Download your Iowa Hawkeye Android app!
- Big Ten Network: Free Hawkeye Video
- 24 Hawkeyes to Watch
- 2013 Big Ten Tournament Information
EVANSTON, Ill. — See you again Thursday.
The University of Iowa women’s basketball team disposed of Northwestern 62-45 on Sunday in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Hawkeyes (19-11 overall, 8-8 Big Ten) are the No. 7 seed and open the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday, March 7, against Northwestern (13-16, 5-11), the No. 10 seed. Tip-off is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. (CT) at Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill.
Iowa closed the regular season by winning three of its final four games. Instrumental in the Hawkeyes winning the final two games was sophomore guard Melissa Dixon, who poured in 10 3-point field goals in victories against Indiana on Thursday and against the Wildcats on Sunday.
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“My role all year is to bring that spark off the bench, so I thought that helped us a lot,” Dixon said. “We pushed the ball well, so I was getting a lot of open shots. My teammates were finding me.”
Dixon scored a game-high 21 points at Northwestern — 16 coming in the first half — making 5-of-12 3-pointers. She was joined in double figures by Hawkeyes Morgan Johnson (16) and Bethany Doolittle (10). Sophomore guard Samantha Logic handed out a game-high seven assists, giving her 198 for the season, a new UI record.
“(Dixon) was outstanding again,” UI head coach Lisa Bluder said. “Whenever we’re kind of in an offensive drought we kind of look for Melissa because she is the one that can get us going. She has these huge runs of 3s. She will get two or three of them in a row that builds such momentum for our team.”
On Logic: “Sam is our floor general and I have so much confidence with the ball in her hands,” Bluder said. “When you come from a program like Iowa with a rich tradition that we have, any time you break a record, that’s remarkable. When you think of the point guards that we have had go through our system and that she is only a sophomore; I thought she played with great composure.”
Looking for another black-and-gold milestone? Points didn’t come easy Sunday for senior guard Jaime Printy, but she finished with five points giving her 1,800 for her career.
More importantly, the Hawkeyes are inching toward a sixth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
“I felt we had a lot of pressure coming into this game and I feel like this win did put us into that NCAA Tournament, but now we want to keep going,” Bluder said.
Iowa shot 41 percent from the field (25-of-61); Northwestern was held to 29.1 percent shooting from the field (16-of-55) and 15.4 percent from 3-point range (2-of-13). The Hawkeyes blocked six shots, two coming from Johnson who moved into fifth place on the Big Ten career blocks list with 283.
The winner of the Iowa-Northwestern contest in the Big Ten Tournament will face No. 2 seeded Nebraska on Friday, March 8, at 11:30 a.m.
“We have two wins in a row, we’re going to play Northwestern again, I feel we have great momentum going into that tournament,” Bluder said. “We certainly want to get that first-round win against Northwestern and take one game at a time.”