IOWA CITY – The Iowa women’s basketball team beat UMass 71-30 Saturday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and former Mason City Mohawk Makenzie Meyer scored 6 points in the victory.
The Hawkeyes held UMass to 30 points, tying a Carver-Hawkeye Arena record for fewest points allowed (James Madison, 11/26/94). The Hawkeyes held UMass to just 10 points in the first half — the fewest points allowed in the first half since holding West Virginia to 11 on December 11, 1992.
Meyer was 2-6 from the field – all three pointers attempts. She also had one rebound, one assist and two turnovers in 20 minutes of game action.
Four Hawkeyes scored in double figures. They include senior Alexa Kastanek (17), sophomore Megan Gustafson (13), senior Ally Disterhoft (10), sophomore Hannah Stewart (10).
Senior Alexa Kastanek led all scorers with 17 points. She made 5-of-10 from 3-point range
Senior Ally Disterhoft has netted double figures in 82 of her 87 career starts.
Hannah Stewart’s 10 points ties her career high.
Iowa will play the winner of South Dakota State and Montana at 2 p.m. (CT) on Sunday.
University of Iowa Basketball Media Conference
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Lisa Bluder
Women’s Basketball
LISA BLUDER: I thought we played really well. I was worried a little bit that we wouldn’t have a great crowd here. And I just want to take a second and thank everybody that came out today, because it was a sudden time change and for everybody to respond to that, kind of give up watching the football team after their great win last week and come here and watch us and support us in Carver, it really means a lot. So very appreciative of the fans that came out today. Hopefully, they will come back again 2 o’clock tomorrow and see the championship game.
I thought our first half was very good. I thought defensively, we made them take contested shots. I think it got into their head a little bit after that and, obviously, they did not shoot the ball well. But I hope it was partly because of our defense.
I thought we ran well, we passed the ball well, we crashed well, we had great paint points again. Sometimes against a zone you don’t get those paint points. We were able to dominate the paint points again with 32. And then Lex shot the ball really well today, so that was really nice to see her come and do a good job shooting the ball.
Q. You sure did pick apart the zone though. So what was key for that?
LISA BLUDER: It’s just having patience. I think sometimes you can get in a rush, especially if you are a team that likes to score points, like we do, is you want to fast break and then have the wherewithal to pull it out and understand that you can set up and run your offense and work for the good shot, even an inside shot, instead of taking the first shot you have.
Q. And this was the first team you played that primarily ran a zone right?
LISA BLUDER: It is. It was the first team that played exclusively zone.
Q. 10 points allowed in the first half was the best in program history.
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, that was kind of fun to see. Again, I thought we did a nice job in the first half. And I thought that we kept bringing people in and bringing energy off the bench. I thought they did a great job of when the next group would come in, they would just attack. And I love that, because they just brought such great energy to both the offensive and defensive ends.
Q. More successful the platoon system again today?
LISA BLUDER: I thought it was good again today. I thought it served us well.
Q. What was key in the ball movement today?
LISA BLUDER: Well, since it wasn’t a denial defense or anything, we were able to move the ball pretty well. So I thought we did a good job of reversing it against the zone and taking advantage of that.
Q. Talk about that fast start. When you get up 39-10 at half time you can just tell it kind of took the wind out of their sails.
LISA BLUDER: I think when you come out with that great energy. It does. You’re playing on the road and you have to try to battle back with, from such a significant deficit, I think it’s really difficult to do. So, I think we did take control of the game early and I think that’s smart to do when you’re playing on your home floor and we have to play another game tomorrow.
Q. You were able to hold their two leading scorer’s Leidel and Holder to 1-22 shooting. What was the game plan against them and why was it so effective?
LISA BLUDER: You know, we had them identified and, I think they got frustrated with our switching on screens, I think they’re used to getting to the rim a little bit better on the dribble drive offense and I thought we did a really good job of communicating on those screens and keeping them in front of us. They were taking hard shots, they were taking shots with a hand in their face and jump shots from 15 feet and those are not usually high percentage shots, so I think we just did a good job of making them take hard shots and after awhile that kind of gets into your head.
