Dear Old Gold
Fansided

Iowa basketball: Women’s team falls short at Thanksgiving Junkanoo Jam Tournament

By Andrew Wade

IOWA CITY, IA - FEBRUARY 08: Matching Nike shoes worn by members of the Iowa Hawkeyes during their match-up against the Maryland Terrapins at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on February 8, 2015 in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IA - FEBRUARY 08: Matching Nike shoes worn by members of the Iowa Hawkeyes during their match-up against the Maryland Terrapins at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on February 8, 2015 in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The #12 women’s Iowa basketball team fell just a few points short of winning the Thanksgiving Junkanoo Jam Tournament. Here is the recap of their weekend.

The highly touted women’s Iowa basketball team walked into the Junkanoo Jam Tournament held in the Bahamas as one of the favorites to come away with an early season tournament win similar to their men counterparts. Unfortunately, their tournament bid fell short when the ladies lost to Florida State 71-67 in Saturday’s tournament finale.

Saturday’s loss came just one day after the Iowa basketball team came back from a 24-point deficit against #25 West Virginia to win 84-81. The Hawkeyes used a huge fourth quarter that saw the ladies outscore the Mountaineers by 17 points on the heels of another incredible performance by All-American Megan Gustafson.

The Florida State Seminoles used a strong second quarter performance where they outscored the Iowa basketball team by 11 to propel themselves to victory. Florida State dominated Iowa in nearly every statistical category besides field goal percentage where Iowa maintained a 50.8% to 42.2% advantage. The Seminoles outrebounded Iowa 38-30, forced four more turnovers, and made it to the free throw line an astonishing 15 more times than the Hawks.

The biggest difference in this game was Iowa’s inability to connect from three-point range as they shot just 4-15 for 26.7% and they only attempted a meager four free throw attempts all coming from senior Tania Davis. For context, the women’s Iowa basketball team has averaged 20.5 free throws per contest coming into this matchup.

Leading the team in scoring was Davis as she had 22 points on 8 of 18 shooting. Right behind her was Megan Gustafson who had herself a fantastic two days in the tournament. Gustafson was 8 for 8 for 16 points and also had a team-high eight rebounds. Senior Hannah Stewart was the only other Hawk to score in double digits as she had 14 points.

Next. Men's basketball preview against Pittsburgh Panthers. dark

It’s not the finish the women’s team wanted, but they’ll need to have short memories as they prepare to face the #1 women’s team in the nation, Notre Dame, on Thursday, November 29.