2008 Woodie Awards
Hawkeyes drop slop fest
Diane Hendrickson - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 11/29/07 Section: Sports
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Coming into Wednesday night's inaugural (for women) Big Ten/ACC Challenge, both Iowa and Georgia Tech were only allowing 53 points per game. However, the game turned out not to be a defensive showcase; instead, it was a was a sloppy turnover fest.
The 76-57 Georgia Tech win wan't representative of the game - the Yellow Jackets pulled away with two minutes left on a 25-7 run, but the Hawkeyes had no one to blame but themselves for their second loss of the year. The game was lost in the turnover battle.
Iowa committed 26 turnovers - 14 in the first half - and the Yellow Jackets scored 35 points off the Hawkeye miscues. Georgia Tech committed 16 of its own, but Iowa could only muster eight points off the takeaways.
"We just gave them too many opportunities," Iowa's Wendy Ausdemore said. "I don't think it was so much their defense. I think it was just unforced turnovers."
The Hawkeyes found every way possible to give away the ball, from awful passes to five-second violations to traveling, but they stayed in the game because of Ausdemore.
The junior, the only consistent Iowa player all night, drained her shots while pulling down boards on the other end. She ended the game with a season-high 23 points. Her 3-pointer with 11:31 minutes left in the second half put the Hawkeyes up by one, and two minutes later, another shot from downtown brought Iowa back to within one.
Her 23 points equaled the combined total of five of her teammates' outputs.
"I thought Wendy Ausdemore played a heck of a game," coach Lisa Bluder said. "She deserved to win this basketball game with that type of effort rebounding-wise, shooting-wise."
Iowa took a brief lead on Stacy Schlapkohl's free throws, but then the Hawks imploded. The Yellow Jackets made 3's on three of four possessions to put the game out of reach.
"We hurt ourselves with the turnovers more than anything," Bluder said. "Just think, we had a tie game, 50-50, with seven minutes to go, and it was a meltdown at that point, and I really can't explain it.
The 76-57 Georgia Tech win wan't representative of the game - the Yellow Jackets pulled away with two minutes left on a 25-7 run, but the Hawkeyes had no one to blame but themselves for their second loss of the year. The game was lost in the turnover battle.
Iowa committed 26 turnovers - 14 in the first half - and the Yellow Jackets scored 35 points off the Hawkeye miscues. Georgia Tech committed 16 of its own, but Iowa could only muster eight points off the takeaways.
"We just gave them too many opportunities," Iowa's Wendy Ausdemore said. "I don't think it was so much their defense. I think it was just unforced turnovers."
The Hawkeyes found every way possible to give away the ball, from awful passes to five-second violations to traveling, but they stayed in the game because of Ausdemore.
The junior, the only consistent Iowa player all night, drained her shots while pulling down boards on the other end. She ended the game with a season-high 23 points. Her 3-pointer with 11:31 minutes left in the second half put the Hawkeyes up by one, and two minutes later, another shot from downtown brought Iowa back to within one.
Her 23 points equaled the combined total of five of her teammates' outputs.
"I thought Wendy Ausdemore played a heck of a game," coach Lisa Bluder said. "She deserved to win this basketball game with that type of effort rebounding-wise, shooting-wise."
Iowa took a brief lead on Stacy Schlapkohl's free throws, but then the Hawks imploded. The Yellow Jackets made 3's on three of four possessions to put the game out of reach.
"We hurt ourselves with the turnovers more than anything," Bluder said. "Just think, we had a tie game, 50-50, with seven minutes to go, and it was a meltdown at that point, and I really can't explain it.
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