The University of Iowa University of Iowa
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Iowa Women’s Basketball Win Season Opener against UC-Riverside

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The University of Iowa woman’s basketball team started their 2013-2014 season Friday night hosting the Hawkeye Challenge at Carver-Hawkeye arena. Iowa faced off against UC Riverside a team from California looking to upset the Hawks on their own court. The game was fast paced and both teams had their equal share of mistakes that could have been crucial in how the game flowed.

The Hawkeye starting lineup consisted of Kali Peschel, Bethany Doolittle, Melissa Dixon, Theairra Taylor, and Samantha Logic. Starting off with winning the jump ball, the Hawkeyes were early to score with an assist by Samantha Logic to Bethany Doolittle for the point.

The pace of the game went rather fast, UCR and Iowa were exchanging shots throughout the first ten minutes of the game. The Hawks were quick on the rebound and were paying aggressively, but UCR played great coverage against Iowa which stopped them from scoring early on.

Brittany Crain from UCR scored the majority of the points during the first half, she made a crucial 3 pointer, and had 12 points by the end of the first half. Iowa’s Samantha Logic also was playing fierce, Logic totaled 13 points and had 4 assists in the first half. The Hawks put up a lot of attempted shots that couldn’t fall through, but by the end of the half Iowa was leading UCR 35-26.

Iowa started with off with the ball in the second half, early points by Logic and Theairra Taylor, the Hawkeyes were pushing the lead to 41-27 with 17 minutes left in the game. The momentum was strong for both teams, UCR and Iowa would continue to run down the courts and exchange baskets.

The Hawkeye’s Kali Peschel would be key for rebounding against UCR, leading the team with 11 rebounds. The rebounds were good for the Hawks, because their shooting game wasn’t looking too great, but with a couple big steals and points by Logic, Iowa would keep its lead on UCR and finish the game with a 70-56 win over their opponents.

Once the game was over, Iowa Hawkeye coach Lisa Bluder felt that the game, “didn’t flow as nice as I wanted it to.” Bluder said, “We missed too many shots in the paint, and we need to work on that.”

Bluder was proud of the first Iowa win of the season, but would like to see the team work harder on getting their shots to fall through.

Junior Samantha Logic would agree with her coach, Logic said that, “we need to keep attacking the ball,” and “we make shots for offensive flow, we need that to keep the game going.” Logic lead the team in scoring and so far scored her own personal best Friday night with 28 points.

The win over UC Riverside was an important transition for the Hawkeyes, because on Sunday they will be hosting No. 14 Dayton.