Disappointed.

That’s the feeling that echoed through Carver-Hawkeye as fans filed out of the arena on Thursday night. Despite not playing for nearly three weeks, Northwestern came out on the road and walked out with a 77-69 victory over the Hawkeyes, who just haven’t been able to hit their stride this season.

“This is a tough loss. You’re on your home court in the Big Ten and going against a younger team and just don’t perform well in the second half,” said Lisa Bluder postgame.

The Wildcats were led by senior guard Veronica Burton who scored 25 points and notched eight steals, but freshman Melannie Daley was the surprise performer, as she put up a career high 22 points on 9/16 shooting.

The Hawkeyes went into the halftime break with the lead, but Northwestern was able to force 11 turnovers and grab eight offensive rebounds to keep the game much closer than it should have been. It felt like it should have been a ten point advantage, but instead Iowa led just 36-34.

“I thought it did feel like we should be (up by more). I was almost surprised that we were only up by two,” said Lisa Bluder. “Monika and McKenna had to sit quite a bit in that second quarter, so I think that hurt us a little bit.”

Northwestern went on a 15-8 run to start the second half and from that point on the Hawkeyes were playing from just a few points behind. A basket by Melannie Daley got the Wildcats lead up to seven with 7:02 to play, but Iowa continued to battle.

With just under four minutes to play, McKenna Warnock knocked down her fourth 3pt basket of the game to cut the Northwestern lead to two. A Wildcat offensive foul on the ensuing possession gave the Hawkeyes a chance to tie the game. Iowa came down and fed Czinano who converted her shot attempt to get the Carver crowd on their feet for a tie game at 66.

Czinano finished with 20 points and six rebounds in her first game back after being out with Covid, but she felt like she hadn’t missed a step.

“I actually felt pretty good running wise. I didn’t feel like I was getting too winded or anything.”

Despite having the entire crowd behind them, the Wildcats took the lead back with a Veronica Burton layup. The Hawkeyes were not able to convert on their possessions down the stretch and they were forced to foul both Burton and Daley, who converted their free throws to lift Northwestern to the victory.

“You know, I thought we had some super momentum from our crowd and then we just couldn’t get that stop,” said Bluder. “Really a lot of it is boxing out and not containing the drive, those type of things, they hurt us unfortunately.”

The Hawkeyes once again struggled shooting from behind the arc. McKenna Warnock was able to connect on four of her six 3pt attempts, but aside from that the team was a measly 2/20. It has been an issue has plagued a team that has the shooters to be a force from behind the arc.

“It is frustrating. You know, I really thought that moving the three-point line back this year wouldn’t bother us, but it seems to have bothered us,” said Bluder. “We’re just not shooting the ball as well as we’re capable of shooting it and the only thing you can do is keep working on it in practice…the only way you can build confidence is by getting to the gym and seeing yourself do it over and over and over again.”

Another statistic that stood out in the loss the lack of contributions from players not named McKenna, Monika or Caitlin. Those three have combined for 72.7% of their teams points this season, but tonight they scored all but five points of the Hawkeyes 69.

Lisa Bluder spoke on it saying, “I think that we have people that can be contributing more offensively, so I am surprised by that…you’re an easy team to guard when you only have two or three scorers, so we’ve got to get more people involved in the offense and more people believing that they can make shots.”

Kate Martin, Gabbie Marshall, Addison O’Grady and others have shown the ability to contribute 8-10 points a game, but Lisa Bluder says that the lack of consistency from other scorers makes it hard to win.

“I think they have to (be more aggressive). If you’re really good at basketball, you’re consistent…right now, we’re not very consistent and you don’t really know who you can count on day in and day out.”

The Hawkeyes travel to Lincoln, Nebraska next to take on a Cornhusker squad that is off to a red-hot start and Caitlin Clark says there is no time to hang their heads before the next match-up.

“Just have to compete every single day. Come ready to compete tomorrow, you know, I mean there’s nothing else you can do. We’re not going to hang our heads because you can’t go back in time and change what just happened,” said Clark. “I think (working on) offensive rebounding, defense and just continuing to work on our offense and get up as many shots as we can because that’s the only way we’re going to get better.”

Lisa Bluder’s squad gets just over 60 hours to prepare for what will be a tough environment at Pinnacle Bank Arena against a 13-1 Nebraska squad. The game is at 1:00pm on Sunday and will be televised on Fox Sports 1.