NorthIowaToday.com

Founded in 2010

News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region

Former Mohawk Makenzie Meyer helps Hawkeyes to season-opening win over Oral Roberts

MAKENZIE MEYER
MAKENZIE MEYER
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa women’s basketball team opened the season with a 96-76 victory over Oral Roberts at Carver-Hawkeye Arena Friday night, and former Mason City Mohawk star Makenzie Meyer chipped in 6 points.

Iowa guard Ally Disterhoft registered a career-high 29 points, while Sophomore center Megan Gustafson tied a career high with 25 points. Gustafson registered the 10th double-double of her career (25 Points, 12 boards). Gustafson has registered double-doubles in 10 of her last 14 games dating back to last season.

Meyer made a 3-pointer and was 1 for 3 from the field and 3 for 4 from the foul line. She also tallied 3 assists and one rebound.

Iowa led 53-30 at the half. The Hawkeyes next take on Hampton on Sunday, November 13 at home.

logo_iowa_hawkeyesUniversity of Iowa Basketball Media Conference, Lisa Bluder, Megan Gustafson, Ally Disterhoft

Friday, November 11, 2016

Women’s Basketball Iowa – 96, Oral Roberts – 76

COACH BLUDER: Well, first of all, I thought that Oral Roberts really battled back. You know, they could have easily, on the road, down pretty big, I thought Misty did a great job with her team and really kept them focused and in it.
We had two women up here that had double-doubles tonight. Megan had a double-double, but two career highs tonight. I thought we offensively did a really great job, took care of the ball much better than the first time out. Rebounded well again. Defensively I thought we were really good the first half and the second half we let up on that.
So that’s a little concerning, but at the same time, you know, we just have to learn to keep our focus, even with a big lead.

Q. In that second half what were they doing different or what were you guys doing that changed things?
COACH BLUDER: We had a little trouble containing the drive in the second half. It was really just kind of one-on-one basketball. And we need to do a better job of help-side defense, so they can’t get to the rim like that. There’s, in my opinion, too many drives that resulted in rim.

Q. (Indiscernible)
COACH BLUDER: I hope so. But we’ve got to do a better job, too, of keeping the ball out of those players’ hands if they’re hurting us off the dribble. We’ll make adjustments and they’ll do better in the long run.

Q. Do you plan on continuing to substitute five for five? Or was that just a tonight thing?
COACH BLUDER: We’ll do that again on Sunday. We don’t really have time to make a whole lot of changes when you only have one day to prepare for your next
opponent. But we’ll evaluate it on Monday and see if we want to go forward into the next week with it.

Q. What’s the thought process there of doing that? It’s unusual.
COACH BLUDER: You know, we have so many players on our team. And this time of year I want to use our depth. I want to use our balance. We play in eight games between now and December 1st and that’s a lot of games.
And if we can save our players’ legs by doing a platoon, I think it’s good for us. I think it keeps everybody involved as well. It develops the younger players. I think it helps us wear out other teams in the fourth quarter if they are playing extended minutes.
So I think there’s a lot of good things that can come out of it. Groups get used to playing together versus some new person rotating every time and having multiple different lineups that we have to work together.
So, you know, it’s something we’re doing now. Are we going to stick with it forever? Who knows. Are we going to stick with it next week? I don’t know.

Q. To the players, what was that like to go in five at a time like that?
ALLY DISTERHOFT: I think it’s really nice to have fresh legs coming into the second half and really in the fourth quarter. And I think it’s really great to get everyone playing on the floor because we have a lot of depth, as coach said.

Q. Coach, can you talk about the rebounding? You had 55 tonight and a good advantage again. COACH BLUDER: Yeah, you know, I think we’re doing a great job on the boards. I think that we’re really more aggressive going after the ball than we were in the past, I like to see that.
Megan had a double-double, which is really great to see. But I think everybody’s kind of getting involved in the offense or into the rebounding. And at halftime I thought we’d given up too many offensive rebounds, but I thought we did a better job in the second half.

Q. Ally, what was working for you tonight, what were you —
Rev #2 by #177 at 2016-11-12 03:06:00 GMT
page 1 of 2
ALLY DISTERHOFT: I think just focusing on shot selection, identifying if this is a good shot or if I can pass up that shot and give my teammate an even better shot. So kind of being selective about what shots I’m taking and trying to get my teammates involved, also trying to set them up if I don’t have something else myself.

Q. Coach, you mentioned their career highs. Do you anticipate these two doing the bulk of your scoring for you this year like tonight or do you expect it to be a little more balanced?
COACH BLUDER: I love balanced scoring, to be quite honest. I think we’re much harder to guard when we have balanced scoring, but we had three people in double figures and one person at eight. Every game is a little bit different depending on your opponent and stuff. But our goal ultimately is to have more people in double figures.

Q. Megan, you’re working and getting stronger, is that what you feel happened? Is that what you saw?
MEGAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, that’s something I’ve been really focusing on in the weight room, trying to get stronger, working on my footwork, and I think it’s really helped me to become stronger against other post players.

Q. How encouraging is it for you for your first game out you get 25 and 12?
MEGAN GUSTAFSON: I think it’s pretty encouraging. My teammates do a great job setting me up, seeing if I’m open down low. Or like if we get doubled or something or if they’re collapsing inside, I try my best to look for the open person. I just think my teammates do a great job setting me up.

Q. Both players, what were you thinking during the alarm when it went off? What was your reaction? ALLY DISTERHOFT: Megan was pretty hot at that time. I was not entirely surprised that the alarms were going off. But it was definitely a first off for Coach Bluder and myself.
I talked to a few of the officials and they said in their 23 years they hadn’t had something like that go on, too. So I think our team did a really good job staying focused. Obviously if something like that happens, it’s a little bit bizarre, but I thought we kind of rebounded from that pretty well.

Q. Coach, your team took 38 free throw shots tonight. Was it a point to be aggressive and try to get to the line?
COACH BLUDER: That’s always our point. We want to get into the double bonus before the other opponent
does. I thought we did a really good job of that in the first half. The second half they beat us to the line in the third quarter. We had too many fouls in that third quarter and put them at the line; but, yeah, we definitely want to get to the free-throw line.

Q. Ally, what’s the biggest thing you see in Megan this year from last year?
ALLY DISTERHOFT: I think she’s just added a lot to our offensive game and she’s been making some really great decisions.
It’s really promising when you have a great inside/outside game like I think we do on our team with both Megan and Chase and Hannah Stewart and Hailey, everyone we have rotating in can do a really great job.
But Megan has gotten a lot stronger. She’s making a lot of good decisions out there. And her rebounding has always been a staple of her game, and she’s continued to do that really well. She’s been doing a great job so far for sure.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Even more news:

Watercooler
Copyright 2024 – Internet Marketing Pros. of Iowa, Inc.
1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x