The Week That Was: How Iowa Remained a Hawkeye State

Yeah, it’s a Hawkeye State, and the livin’ sure is easy after Iowa handily took it to its interstate rival this week, continuing their annihilation in the 2016-17 edition of the Cy-Hawk Series. In fact, thanks to what was a dominant week (and hey, let’s not forget the fact that Iowa really was a Hawkeye State after the Hawks beat the Cyclones 42-3 in September), Iowa was able to clinch the Cy-Hawk Series with three competitions left to be played against the Cyclones.

Shall we take a look back on the week that was? We shall.

Women’s Basketball

We briefly mentioned here that the women’s team beat the Cyclones 88-76, but unfortunately we didn’t go into a whole ton of detail about it. It sure was a fun game though, and after Iowa State held its largest lead of the game (four!) with a few minutes left in the first quarter, Iowa took the lead and never looked back. Seriously - the Hawks led by 15 at the half and by as many as 22 in the fourth quarter.

Tania Davis LIT UP the scoreboard with 23 points, shooting 7 of 11 from the field, including 5 of 6 from three-point range. She seriously couldn’t miss for large stretches of the game and took over to put the Hawkeyes up big. Kathleen Doyle added 17 points and five assists to supplement Davis’ good play, while Megan Gustafson recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Ally Disterhoft and Christina Buttenham scored in double figures as well.

For the Cyclones? Well, after starting the game pretty hot, they just couldn’t hit a shot when they needed to. Iowa State shot 38% from the field, including an abysmal 21% from three. Their three leading scorers combined for 57 points, but all shot less than 50% from the field, and that ultimately doomed the Cyclones in this one as the Hawks shot 57% from the field and 62% from three in an unbelievable shooting night for Iowa.

Most importantly, maybe? Lisa Bluder did the damn worm after the game.

Manager’s Game

Okay, okay. So I know it doesn’t actually COUNT for anything, but I want to briefly mention it again. The Iowa basketball managers took down the Iowa State basketball managers 69-60 following the women’s game. Take a look at this block side-by-side with Nicholas Baer’s block from Thursday night!

Men’s Basketball

So we already wrote our quick recap, which you can find here, but I wanted to write a little bit more about this game, which Iowa won 78-64.

Before the game, things didn’t look so great for the Hawks. They were missing arguably their second best player in Tyler Cook, and had just lost to Nebraska-Omaha five days prior, a team that the Cyclones absolutely manhandled by over 40 points. I didn’t give the Hawks much of a chance, but that’s why you play the game.

Iowa looked like it was going to coast to a victory for the majority of the game, but with about six minutes left, the Cyclones cut the lead to seven. That’s when Jordan Bohannon hit a backbreaking three, which Isaiah Moss followed up with consecutive layups in transition to stretch the lead to 14, which would be the final deficit of the game.

For a team that has been (rightfully) criticized for their play on the defensive end of the floor, it was a total team effort. The Hawkeyes limited the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year to just 10 points, and while the Cyclones had five players score in double figures, they shot inefficiently for large stretches of the game (36% FG and 27% 3FG) and missed a ton of layups. Meanwhile, the Hawks had four players score in double figures, including Peter Jok with a team leading 23 points, as the men’s team was able to break their three-game losing streak.

Swimming and Diving

The Hawkeyes can win on land, and they can win on water, too! Iowa defeated Iowa State in the swimming and diving portion of the Cy-Hawk Series on Friday by a score of 197-101.

The story of the day was the fact that Iowa placed first in 14 of 16 events, pretty much giving the Cyclones no shot at winning the meet.

Swimming isn’t something that I personally know a ton about, and I’ll be the first to admit that, but if you are interested in how the Hawkeyes fared against the Cyclones in the pool, HawkeyeSports.com has you covered.

Wrestling

Lastly, the Hawkeyes took it to the Cyclones on the mat last night, recording a 26-9 victory.

Iowa went 7-3 in matches, with the lone losses being Holloway at heavyweight, Laux at 133, and Wilcke at 197. The Cyclones were up 6-5 at one point, but I don’t think anyone was actually ever worried that they might pull it out. Well, okay, maybe after Michael Kemerer almost blew his match? Maybe.

Our very own Danny Payne wrote a couple things about last night’s wrestling dual, so I won’t go into a ton of detail. You can find them here (the very short version) and here (lots more detail here!).

Overall

Well, the Hawks won all four competitions that actually count in the Cy-Hawk Series, and I’m definitely counting the manager game, so really they went 5-0 this week against the Cyclones. Pretty great week overall, in my opinion. Iowa now leads the Cy-Hawk Series 14-7, for those who are interested in that sort of thing, and as I said up top, have already clinched it for the year. Feels good.