IOWA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL ADVANCES IN INDY

The fifth-seeded Iowa women’s basketball team is advancing to the third round of the Big Ten Tournament after taking down Northwestern 55-45 in its first game of the tourney.

Iowa got off to a hot start. Like Mt. Doom hot. Like up 22-1 after the first quarter hot.

Things cooled down considerably for Iowa after that, however. Northwestern outscored Iowa 19-9 in the second quarter and went into the half down just 11. The Wildcats were led by Lindsey Pulliam’s 17 points, the only Northwestern player to score in double figures.

Iowa’s Megan Gustafson had a relatively pedestrian 12 points, 4 blocks and 9 rebounds while Mackenzie Meyer led the team in scoring with 13. Kathleen Doyle and Alexis Sevillian had 9 apiece.

The Hawkeye defense smothered Northwestern out of scoring throughout the game. Shots that fell for the Wildcats were few and far between as NU shot just 27 percent from the floor and connected on just 2 of its 10 three-point attempts.

Iowa, meanwhile was a respectable 42 percent from the floor making 40 percent of its threes.

The Hawkeyes advance to take on No. 4 seed Minnesota Friday at 1:30 PM Central. Iowa and Minnesota split games this year, with each team winning on its home floor. Unfortunately, the game won’t be televised, since someone thought it would be a good idea to have both basketball and the wrestling tournament on the same weekend.