And so the pattern continues.
The MSU women’s basketball team failed to break its win-loss trend in an 82-64 loss to Iowa Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Spartans lose to Iowa, 82-64
Sophomore guard, Takeya Fortner fights for control of the ball against Iowa’s Abby Emmert Thursday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Spartans were defeated by the Hawkeyes 82-64. Sam Ruiz/The State News
The Spartans (13-11 overall, 5-7 Big Ten) started the game off to a promising start, taking a quick 5-0 lead. Then Hawkeyes guard Kristi Smith woke her team up with a 3-pointer en route to a 14-0 run of their own.
“Teams are going to make runs but we have to stay focused,” Hawkeyes forward Wendy Ausdemore said. “And that’s what we’ve done.”
MSU would never regain the lead after the first Hawkeyes (16-7, 9-3) run, handing them their seventh consecutive win. The closest the Spartans came to regaining the lead was at the 12:27 mark when the gap was closed to three points.
Iowa continued to chip away at the Spartans’ defense until the half, where they held the lead 39-29.
The halftime chat and strategy for the remaining minutes did not seem to fix a thing, as the Spartans failed to put one in the bucket for the first four minutes.
Hawkeyes guard Johanna Solverson remained hot all game and scored her 1,000th career point late in the second. Solverson ended the game with 18 points.
One of the thorns in the Spartans’ side for most of the season has been their rebounding, and they just can’t seem to get it out. The Hawkeyes collected 43 rebounds, 33 of which were defensive.
“Rebounds come down to effort,” MSU head coach Suzy Merchant said. “And we just weren’t the ones with the most of it.”
The Spartans’ frustration became evident late in the second half, where the team was consistently down by 20 points. At one point, DeHaan fell to the ground with Hawkeyes center Megan Skouby after being fouled. Shortly after, Merchant received a technical foul for an outburst at the referees.
MSU tallied 10 less turnovers than the Hawkeyes, yet only managed to gain two additional points than Iowa off of them.
“(Iowa’s) guards really stepped up for them,” Merchant said. “That and their 3-point shooting has really improved since the last time we played them.”
The Spartans ended that game at 37.3 percent shooting from the field and 17.6 percent from beyond the arc. Freshman forward Kalisha Keane led the Spartans with 16 points.
READ MORE
MSU returns to action at 7 p.m., Monday, at Breslin Center.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
