Iowa's Run Ends Before It Begins

It was over before Kathleen Doyle went down with a back injury.

It was really over before Doyle went out with what looked like a severe ankle injury.

The Big Ten's women's basketball player of the year had a rough night, and so did her teammates, in Iowa's 87-66 loss to Ohio State in Friday's Big Ten tournament quarterfinal in Indianapolis.

The Hawkeyes owned this tournament last year, winning three games in three days to take the title.

They were out after the final game of Friday's session on a night when they fell behind on a 19-point scoring run by Ohio State in the first quarter.

"I kind of want to apologize for our poor performance tonight," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "It really was pretty unexpected. I thought we had two good prep days before we came here, and obviously we didn't have to play late last night like Ohio State did, yet it looked like Ohio State had a lot more energy than we did today."

Defense ➡️Offense courtesy of @KDoyle_11.#Hawkeyes #FightForIowa pic.twitter.com/JSywL8PGYv
— Iowa Women's Basketball (@IowaWBB) March 7, 2020

Ohio State, the sixth seed, led 22-3 in the first quarter as the Hawkeyes went almost seven minutes without a point. The Buckeyes feasted on Iowa's zone defense, making six three-pointers in the first quarter.

Iowa (23-7) showed flickers of life in the first half, but every Hawkeye spark was doused by the Buckeyes.

Doyle, Iowa's senior guard who was voted the best player in the conference earlier in the week, took a pounding. She went down hard on a second-quarter drive and was in obvious pain, holding her back.

It only got worse in the third quarter, when Doyle landed on the foot of an Ohio State player and fell to the floor again.

She played 32 minutes, 49 seconds, and finished with a team-high 16 points while adding five points and four assists.

"I mean, it's postseason play, I'm going to be on the floor as much as I possibly can," Doyle said. "It was disappointing those things happened, but I just tried to be out there fighting with my teammates, so I just tried to get back out there as fast as I could."

Doyle's injuries were part of a rough week for the Hawkeyes. Forward Amanda Ollinger was in an auto accident on Wednesday night and wasn't in the starting lineup, although she played almost 11 minutes, scoring three points and four rebounds.

Alexis Sevillian and Makenzie Meyer each had 13 points for the Hawkeyes. Monika Czinano, who came into the game leading the nation in field-goal percentage, went 4-of-14 from the field and scored 11 points.

Kierstan Bell led Ohio State (20-11) with 16 points. Dorka Juhasz had 15 points and 14 rebounds. The Buckeyes had a 43-27 rebounding edge.

"We didn't lose to a bad team tonight," Bluder said. "Am I disappointed the way that we played? Yes. Did we lose to an inferior opponent? I don't think so. I think they played really, really well tonight, and I think they will continue to play well in the postseason."

Add us as a preferred source on Google