A day late and a few dollars short, but yesterday was a busy day for Iowa sports. Anyway... It had to end at some point, right? The Iowa women's basketball team took an eight-game winning streak into the Big Ten Tournament on Friday, a streak that had carried them into a tie for second place in the league standings and a 3-seed (and first round bye) in the tourney. They played #24 Nebraska even for a half (and led 36-33 at halftime), but things got away from them badly in the second half: the estrogen-powered version of Nebrasketball took Iowa to the woodshed there, putting up a staggering 47 points and blowing Iowa off the court. The Huskers' torrid shooting was led by Lindsey Moore, who had 26 points on 10/15 shooting (4/5 from distance). Three other Nebraska starters were also in double figures and they shot 46% for the game. Iowa was led by Samantha Logic and Kamille Wahlin, who each had 17 points. Logic's run of double-doubles ended, but she still managed to stuff the stat sheet pretty well: 8 rebounds and 6 assists (both team-bests).
Ultimately, Iowa may have run into a bad matchup (it was Iowa's third loss to Nebraska this year) and a team in the midst of a red-hot weekend -- Nebraska has ridden lights-out shooting into the finals of the Big Ten Tournament today. They destroyed Northwestern in round one and trounced Ohio State yesterday; their margin of victory in the Big Ten Tournament so far is a jaw-dropping 59 points. It looks like Iowa just had the misfortune of running into a buzzsaw on Friday. C'est la vie. Iowa shouldn't be in any danger of dropping out of the NCAA Tournament with the loss; they've been solidly ensconced in the bracketology predictions for a few weeks now and one loss (especially to a ranked opponent) shouldn't boot them out completely. It might even wind up being a slight benefit if it slides them out of the 8/9 game. Farewell, 8-game winning streak: you were fun. Now it's time to see what happens in the NCAA Tournament. The field for that tournament will be announced in a few weeks.