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By DARREN MILLER
hawkeyesports.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana outscored Iowa 7-4 in the second overtime and pulled away in a crucial Big Ten Conference women’s basketball game, 80-77, in front of 2,976 on Wednesday inside Assembly Hall.
The Hawkeyes (16-12 overall, 7-8 Big Ten) were 2-of-6 from the free throw line in the second overtime. Indiana improved to 19-9, 9-6.
Senior Ally Disterhoft gave Iowa a 72-66 lead in the first overtime by scoring six points on back-to-back possessions. Her conventional three-point play with 3:23 left gave her 2,000 career points, joining Cindy Haugejorde (2,059) in an elite club of Hawkeyes. A 3-pointer from distance the next trip down the court put Iowa ahead by six with 2:37 to go.
“I’m proud of it,” Disterhoft said. “I have had a lot of great teammates help me get there along the way, that’s for sure. It was not all my doing, I have had a ton of great support. I’m happy about that, but it isn’t on the forefront of my mind right now; we are incredibly bummed about this game.”
Disterhoft finished with a game-high 23 points, making 9-of-16 field goals. Sophomore Megan Gustafson recorded her 14th double-double of the season with 19 points and a season-high 18 rebounds. She was 8-of-14 from the field. Freshman Kathleen Doyle added 10 points and a career-high eight assists — her final two coming to Disterhoft in overtime. Doyle also had four steals.
The Hawkeyes took their only lead in the second overtime at 74-73 with 4:09 remaining. Ironically, it came on a made free throw my freshman Makenzie Meyer. Iowa missed its next three free throws.
Meyer gave the Hawkeyes their biggest cushion at 37-28 late in the second quarter when she made a 3-point field goal — one of five by Iowa. What looked like the biggest basket came from senior Alexa Kastanek when she drained one from distance with 3.4 seconds left, putting the Hawkeyes ahead, 64-61. But Indiana’s Amanda Cahill answered with a 3-pointer to send the game to its first overtime.
Cahill was one of five Hoosiers scoring in double figures with 17. Tyra Buss paced Indiana with 21 points before fouling out with 2:22 left in the second overtime. Jenn Anderson scored 20 points, four in the first overtime.
Iowa shot 50 percent from the field, making 30 of 60 attempts. Indiana shot 41.6 percent, but the Hoosiers made 11 3-point field goals — six more than the Hawkeyes. Iowa did an outstanding job on the boards, finishing with a 43-33 advantage. Kastanek grabbed a career-high seven rebounds.
Bluder said the Hawkeyes did a good job boxing out, but she was not pleased with 22 turnovers — twice as many as Indiana committed.
“We shot too many 3s,” Bluder said. “We’re not a great 3-point shooting team right now and we shot 68 percent from two-point range. We took 23 3s out of 60 shots — that was way too many 3-point shots. We were not patient and working for the good shot.”
Freshman Bre Cera returned to action after missing the last two games with a concussion. She played 16 minutes, made both field goal attempts and pulled down two rebounds with a blocked shot and steal. Junior Chase Coley was 3-of-4 from the field in 16 minutes.
Iowa concludes the regular season Sunday with a Senior Day contest against Wisconsin beginning at 2 p.m. (CT) on Mediacom Court inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Badgers (8-20, 3-12) defeated Illinois on Wednesday, 59-55, and have won two games in a row.
