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Iowa women’s basketball performs well in Black and Gold Blowout

The Iowa women’s basketball team made their first appearance of the year at the Black and Gold blowout, an annual event in which both basketball teams are showcased.

“We’re just out here to have some fun and get people excited about Hawkeye women’s basketball.” Head Coach Lisa Bluder said.

The Black squad, led by freshman Ally Disterhoft’s nine points beat the gold squad led by Theairra Taylor with eight points.  Disterhoft three point shot was as smooth as her prep days at local Iowa City West high school.

Disterhoft scored both inside and out, hitting a three pointer as well as finishing as on alley-oop pass from Samantha Logic.

“It’s really exciting to come out and play as a Hawkeye for the first time in front of so many fans. Getting that first bucket is great to get that weight off of your shoulders.” Disterhoft said about her performance.

Dolittle had high praise for Disterhoft’s performance, but then tacked on that it is nothing different than what they expected.

The big question mark coming into the night was depth at the center and power forward position. Claire Till, Kali Peschel and Alexa Kastanek all spent time inside at the power forward position while Nicole Smith and Bethany Doolittle went against each other at center.

Doolittle finished the day looking very solid, hitting on a couple layups inside and another with her trademark baseline jumper.

Doolittle returns as the only inside player with a decent amount of game experience. When Nicole Smith took a break, freshman Hailey Schneden played the five and looked overmatched. Schneden is a non-scholarship player for the Hawkeyes this season.

Smith’s mobility has increased tenfold from the previous season and her conditioning level seems to be much higher. Smith will have to be a vital part of this team, especially on the defensive end of the court.

On Thursday’s media day, Head Coach Bluder mentioned how Melissa Dixon had worked very hard on her dribble drive moves to take away team’s ability to take her out of games by tight perimeter coverage.

In the second half of the eight minute scrimmage she had two nice looking dribble drives, faking out her defender and feeding the inside player for an easy layup.

Sam Logic stated at media day that she had worked on her three-point shot, something that was inconsistent and a bit clunky the previous season. She showed that talent by nailing a three pointer in the first half of the contest.

Overall, there was some rust on the defensive end, but the scrimmage nature of the contest was behind a lot of the lackadaisical defense.

The official attendance for the event was 7140, a number that rivaled some non-conference men’s games from last year.

“We’re thrilled with this event, we think it’s great for both our men’s and women’s basketball team.” Bluder said.

The Hawkeyes next appearance will be on November 3 in a scrimmage against Concordia-St. Paul. That scrimmage should answer a couple of our questions, as it will be the first chance to see the actual Hawkeye starting lineup.

With the possibility of either Peschel, Till or Disterhoft starting at the power forward position it will answer a lot of questions in which way this team is going to try and match up against other teams.

The Iowa women have a tough test at home their second game of the season against a potential top 15 team in Dayton. That game only begins a tough non-conference schedule in which Iowa plays multiple teams from last years NCAA tournament. Iowa is looking to campaign for their sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Black Roster:

  • 2 Ally Disterhoft
  • 3 Claire Till
  • 21 Melissa Dixon
  • 22 Sam Logic
  • 40 Haley Schneden
  • 45 Nicole Smith

Gold Roster:

  • 1 Alexa Kastanek
  • 23 Theaiira Taylor
  • 25 Kali Peschel
  • 33 Kathryn Reynolds
  • 51 Bethany Doolittle