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By Matt Cozzi
matthew-cozzi@uiowa.edu
The Iowa women’s basketball team was winless in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge coming into its Wednesday showdown with Virginia Tech.
Not anymore.
The Hawkeyes (5-2) defeated the Hokies, 58-47, in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Head coach Lisa Bluder’s squad struggled to find a shooting rhythm and turned over the ball 13 times, but junior Morgan Johnson sparked the Hawkeyes in the second half to give Iowa the advantage over the Hokies (2-5).
“It feels really good to come home and get this win,” Bluder said. “It wasn’t the prettiest victory, and we won with some unusual ways for us … We defended very well tonight. Virginia Tech did a good job of taking away our outside game, but they gave us our inside game.”
That allowed Johnson to lead all players with 23 points, including 7-of-8 shooting on free-throw attempts. The 6-5 center also pulled down eight boards.
Iowa shot 33.3 percent from the field as a team.
“[Iowa] stayed with what they wanted to do a little bit longer than we did during the game, so they came out on top in the end,” Virginia Tech head coach Dennis Wolff said. “But they’re a very good team.”
Both squads started off slowly, as the first basket of the game — a layup by the Hawkeyes’ Kelly Krei — wasn’t recorded until about four and a half minutes into the opening half.
Two usual strengths in the Iowa lineup, Jaime Printy and Kamille Wahlin, shot 2-for-5 and 0-for-2 in the first half, respectively. Wahlin was held scoreless for the game.
The Hawkeyes made improvements after the break, but not before the Hokies went on a 6-0 run to open the second half. A layup by Printy ceased the damage to tie the game at 29.
Johnson scored back-to-back baskets to push the lead to 35-29, and Iowa never looked back.
“It’s nice to know that if you don’t get off to the quickest start, this team is able to bounce back,” Krei said. “It was a good team win. I’m proud of the team.”
Iowa made 46 percent of its shots against the Hokies in the final 20 minutes of play.
Johnson was the main reason for Iowa’s drastically better performance in the second half, and was able to compensate for the Hawkeyes’ poor 3-point shooting; the team recorded just two 3-pointers on 15 attempts.
Bluder said Johnson’s performance was encouraging, given that she shot 1-for-10 in the first half but still managed to lead all players in scoring.
“We kept saying, ‘Get the ball [into the post],’ ” Bluder said. “We have to keep going to it when we have those high-percentage shot opportunities.
Statistically, it was going to turn around. I’m proud of the way our team kept giving the ball to Morgan and that Morgan was able to keep her confidence.”
Johnson said admitted her first-half performance was perhaps the worst of her career, but said her team stayed behind her.
It was clear the Hawkeyes benefited from that confidence as the final buzzer sounded.
“It’s one of those things that I think every player is going to have,” Johnson said. “It’s how you respond that makes the difference.”
