The Hawkeye women were back on the court for the second time this year and this time it counted in the standings. Iowa rolled to a 93-50 victory over New Hampshire in the season opener. It marked 22 straight home opener wins for Lisa Bluder.
“Feels good to get started. Starting 1-0 is always a good feeling,” said Coach Bluder.
The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 31-11 lead after the first quarter and a 48-23 halftime lead, but the worry in the first half was the turnovers. Iowa turned the ball over 12 times in the first half, as New Hampshire threw a few different looks at them.
“We haven’t worked against the zone, as much and I think that showed a little bit tonight…Probably not enough reps and that’s my fault,” said Coach Bluder on the turnovers.
For the game, Iowa turned it over 19 times and allowed 16 points off turnovers.
Caitlin Clark led the way for Iowa with 26 points, to go along with eight rebounds and six assists. Amanda Torres for New Hampshire tried to fluster Clark and even drew an offensive foul, but Clark said she knows this won’t be the last time she is defended like that.
“That (fouls) isn’t always called all the time. That is something I just have to get used to. Haven’t really seen it that much in practice,” said Clark on the physical play. “I don’t think she flustered me that much. Just got to stay composed and stay within myself.”
Monika Czinano added 14 points on 7/10 shooting, while McKenna Warnock scored 12. Tomi Taiwo also added ten points off the bench, including 2/2 from 3pt range. Of note was the Hawkeyes exceptional shooting from the free throw line, going 27/28 from the stripe.
“The thing about free throws is that it doesn’t matter about the competition you’re playing against,” said Coach Bluder.
Caitlin Clark said that the team works on free throws every single day in practice. The Hawkeyes were ranked #4 in the nation in free throw percentage last season, and something like that will come in handy in close games.
On the defensive side, they held New Hampshire to 29.7% shooting and forced 21 turnovers.
“I thought there were some really good things, but again I think the competition is going to get a lot more difficult as time goes on. Each step this week is going to get harder,” said Coach Bluder.
While the team likes where they are right now on the defensive end compared to last season, they know the competition will be improving and that they still have room to improve themselves.
Three Hawkeyes posted six assists, but most notable was Kylie Feuerbach who was dropping some sweet dimes to her teammates. Coach Bluder was impressed not only with the court vision from Feuerbach, but the night she had overall.
“I thought she did some really good things for us offensively and defensively. In fact she has the highest +/- of anybody on the team, so it shows she played both sides of the basketball really well. Had some really nice passes.”
The Iowa women will be back on the court Thursday vs Samford and the team is focused on re-grouping and recovering before the game, which is just under 48 hours away.
Caitlin Clark spoke about importance of resting and recovering saying, “Getting treatment, hot tub and cold tub is going to be our friend. More than anything its going to be mental preparation.”
Samford was 14-11 last season and brings back their leading scorer Andrea Cournoyer, who helped lead them to the WNIT last season. The game will be at 6:30pm at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Thursday night.
Oh yeah and this happened after the postgame press conference….
