[Herky] Iowa women needs a win streak to return to NCAA

Sue Bailey minburnsb at gmail.com
Thu Feb 18 04:51:22 PST 2016


Iowa needs a win streak to return to NCAA

By Jeff Linder,The GazetteIOWA CITY - The math has become clear and 
simple: The Iowa Hawkeyes must run thetable now, or later.With nine 
losses in their last 12 games, Iowa (15-11 overall, 5-9 Big Ten) finds 
itself backed into a corner. To make the NCAA women's basketball 
tournament for the ninth consecutive year, there are two plausible options:

•Four straight wins to conclude the regular season would probablydo 
it.'Maybe I'm looking through rose-colored glasses, but I still think we 
have a chance,' Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said.

'If we compete with the same intensity we did (in a 78-76 loss at 
Minnesota on Monday), we can play with almost anybody in the conference.'

•Gain anautomatic bid by winning the Big Ten tournament.

This is less likely, because it would probably entail beating Ohio State 
and Maryland along the way.

At first blush, the way things are headed, a 4-0 Big Ten conclusion 
sounds like a stretch.

But there aren't any untouchables left, and three of them are 
atCarver-Hawkeye Arena, starting tonight against Purdue (16-9, 7-7). 
Tipoff is 7 p.m.

'They shot the lights out last time (in a 90-73 Purdue win Jan. 24),' 
Bluder said. 'Our defense just has to be better.' Like Iowa, the 
Boilermakers are skidding. They've lost four straight games and seven of 
their last nine after a 5-0 Big Ten start.

Iowa finishes the regular season with a home game against Indiana on 
Sunday, then a road battle with Penn State and a home test with Illinois 
next week.

'We're due to beat these teams,' Ally Disterhoft said. 'We believewe're 
better than we've shown. We're better than some of the teams we've lost 
to. It just comes down to execution down the stretch.' Freshmen Megan 
Gustafson and Tania Davis have continued to grow. Gustafson has earned 
double-doubles in four of her last five games.

'My main goal is to contribute and to win,' she said. 'I want to give 
the team as many second-chance opportunities as possible.' Davis earned 
the defensive assignments on Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell and 
Minnesota's Rachel Banham in the last week.

'That's asking a lot of a freshman,' Bluder said. 'Tania doesn't back 
down from any challenge I give her.' Expect to see Davis shadowing 
Purdue's April Wilson tonight. A  5-foot-7 guard, Wilson leads the 
Boilermakers at 14.6 points and 5.9 assists per game.

•Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder at thegazette.com 
<mailto:jeff.linder at thegazette.com>

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