Iowa women beat Virginia Tech
IOWA CITY, Ia. Challenge met. Finally.
The Iowa women’s basketball team won its Big Ten/ACC Challenge game for the first time in five tries, topping Virginia Tech 58-47 in a ragged game Wednesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“We really haven’t done our part in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge for the last four years,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “It feels really good to come home and get this win.
Junior center Morgan Johnson led Iowa with 23 points, but only after starting the night shooting 1-for-13 from the floor.
“That’s pretty much my worst (shooting night), and I’d like to keep it that way,” Johnson said. “It’s one thing every player is going to have. How you respond makes all the difference.”
Iowa (5-2) struggled shooting much of the night. The Hawkeyes finished 20-for-60 (33 percent) from the floor, and 2-for-15 (13 percent) from 3-point range.
“It’s nice to know we can win games without producing as well from 3-point range,” Bluder said. “But quite honestly, that’s a big part of who we are, and we need to find that identity again.”
Virginia Tech (2-5) played sticky defense on the Hawkeye 3-point shooters, leaving the paint open for the 6-foot-5 Johnson.
But Johnson clanked nearly everything around the rim. She had seven points at halftime on 1-of-10 shooting.
“It was a little frustrating,” Johnson said. “Those are shots I know will normally go down. I have a tendency to get a little down on myself sometimes.”
When Johnson finally found her game in the second half, Iowa took control. Down 29-27, Iowa went on a 10-0 run with three baskets by Johnson.
“I’m proud of the way our team kept feeding Morgan, for one thing,” Bluder said. “And another thing, that Morgan was able to keep the confidence to keep shooting them as well.”
Virginia Tech cut the lead to two, 40-38, on a jumper by Monet Tellier, but Iowa answered.
Kelly Krei hit a 3-pointer, reserve center Bethany Doolittle put back an offensive rebound, and Johnson hit a hook in the paint to make it 47-38 with 7:45 left.
The Hokies never got closer than five points after that. Virginia Tech struggled, too, shooting just 31.6 percent (18-of-57) with 15 turnovers. Iowa won the rebounding battle 47-38.
“They are a really smart, well-coached team and they stuck with what they wanted to do,” Tech coach Dennis Wolff said. “They got their bigger girls rolling to the basket; we were too spread out to help.”
Aerial Wilson led the Hokies with 18 points and Tellier added 16 points.
Johnson finished with eight baskets on a career-high 21 attempts to go with a team-high eight rebounds.
Krei and Samantha Logic each had eight points and seven rebounds. Jaime Printy had nine points.
Senior point guard Kamille Wahlin was held without a point for the first time since her sophomore season.
“It wasn’t the prettiest victory, and we won with some unusual ways for us,” Bluder said. “We rebounded well and we defended very well tonight.”
Iowa returns to action Saturday at Kansas State for the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes women's basketball
