Passing Fancy: Iowa's Offense Is Crisp In Win Over Clemson
It’s about taking risks, Lisa Bluder said.
The Iowa women’s basketball coach knew her team had 17 turnovers in Wednesday’s 74-60 win over Clemson in an ACC/Big Ten Challenge game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
But Bluder appreciated the numbers that really mattered — 28 assists on 30 field goals.
That meant the Hawkeyes were moving the ball against Clemson’s zone, even if more than a few of the passes got away.
“You’ve got to take some risks, or you don’t ever learn,” Bluder said. “You learn from making mistakes, and if you don’t ever take risks, you’re never going to make mistakes, and so you’re never going to get better. How do you know unless you try?”
The Hawkeyes (6-2) got 40 points inside, including a career-high 24 points for center Monika Czinano, who was 11-of-15 from the field.
“I think a lot of times when the ball got inside, it was because the guards had some amazing passes,” Czinano said. “There were some behind-the-back-of-the-defender passes, some bullets that were just high-IQ basketball passes. The guards did a really good job of getting the ball inside.”
A 17-2 run late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter put Iowa in control. Czinano then scored nine consecutive points for the Hawkeyes, who led 39-34 at halftime.
The passes always seemed to find Czinano. Kathleen Doyle and Makenzie Meyer each had nine assists. Doyle had eight turnovers, while Meyer didn’t have any.
“She works really hard,” Doyle said of Czinano. “What you see in the game is what you see in practice every day. So she’s earning everything she’s getting during the games.”
Iowa was bothered by Washington’s zone defense in a 70-63 loss in the Puerto Rico Clasico on Saturday, and those struggles helped in this win.
“I think we learned a lot,” Bluder said. “We were still able to get the ball in to Monika. Monika had a tremendous game.”
Clemson (3-6) had 22 turnovers, which Iowa turned into 19 points.
“We had a lot of defense that led to offense tonight,” Bluder said. “That doesn’t happen a lot for us.”
Iowa took 25 3-pointers, making nine. The Hawkeyes were 21-of-37 on two-point shots.
“We still took a lot of threes tonight, and I’m OK with that,” Bluder said. “But I also want to get the ball inside, and I thought we did a much better job of getting the ball inside tonight.”
Doyle had 14 points. Amanda Ollinger had 11.
Kobi Thornton led Clemson with 17 points.
