UW WBB hit the road again to play at #15 Iowa on Wednesday night ultimately losing by 9 points.
UW came out swinging in the 1st quarter, exposing the Iowa defense in back cut after back cut, slashing to the paint and getting easy layins. One of the ways they did this is that UW went with a smaller lineup and started true freshman Brynn McGaughy instead of senior Yulia Grabovskaia which allowed for a more uptempo style. They grabbed every rebound and ran, not walked, up the court. 20 of their 25 points in the first quarter came from the paint and even bench players Devin Coppinger and Chloe Briggs got into the action. At the end of the quarter, UW led Iowa 25-19, on pace for an 100 point game.
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And then in the second quarter everything came screeching to a halt. Iowa adjusted their defense to stop the backcut, frustrating the Huskies and slowing down their offense. UW had several unforced turnovers bringing their total at that point to 9, Elle Ladine got called for an illegal screen, and the team did not score at all for the first 5 minutes of the quarter. Everything was going wrong and it looked like UW was a JV team playing the varsity squad.
Tina Langley finally called a timeout with 5 minutes left in the quarter. It didn’t really help because it was another two minutes before Avery Howell finally hit a 3 pointer to break the dry spell. UW ended the quarter with only 5 points after a layin from Ladine. It didn’t help that, like many important games, Sellers pulled two fouls and had to sit most of the 2nd quarter, leaving her teammates out to dry again.
Somehow, even after that dismal quarter, the Huskies went into halftime only down 36-30.
The third quarter had a slight uptick in offensive flow, and it was the only other quarter besides the first that the Huskies won. They continued to struggle against Iowa’s suffocating defense and had a hard time holding back Iowa’s star player Chit-Chat Wright. UW continued to stay in the game, only being behind by between 4-8 points for most of the 3rd quarter.
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The fourth quarter was more of the same – UW down between 4-8 points, never quite able to get over the hump to take the lead again. There were several more UW offensive miscommunications that led to a few more unforced turnovers, which doesn’t help when you’re already playing a tough defensive team.
Ultimately:
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Iowa’s defense also held Avery Howell to 8 points (she still had 10 rebounds though)
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UW Turnovers 19 – 9 Iowa turnovers (UW has 351 TOs on the year, forcing 338 TOs; 79 of those are Sellers’)
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19% UW 3 point shooting to 50% Iowa shooting (UW averages 35.8% on the year)
It’s my opinion that Tina Langley got out-coached in this game. Jan Jensen seemed to know what UW was going to do before they did it, and if she didn’t know ahead of time, she was able to make offensive or defensive adjustments that UW wasn’t able to respond to. Like I mentioned before, Langley didn’t call a timeout when her team was scoreless for 5 minutes. She could have helped draw up a play for an easy bucket, which she has done in the past. For another example, UW full court pressed one time with 3 minutes left in the game. It is unclear how that is a strategy that helps anything long term or frustrates Iowa in any way.
There were some glimmers of hope in this game and UW played it close despite only scoring 56 points (and to be fair, holding Iowa to only 65 points). Ladine led the Huskies with 19 points, Sellers contributed 14, and Stines had 9.
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Up Next:
Oregon (at home) Sunday, Feb 15th at 5pm
#2 UCLA (at UCLA) Thursday, Feb 19th at 7pm
Nebraska (at home) Sunday, Feb 22nd at noon
Oregon (at Oregon) Sunday, Mar 1 time TBD
This final stretch of regular season games is at least on the west coast, so the team doesn’t have to travel back and forth to end the season.
