By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, Iowa – With point guard Tania Davis consigned to the end of the bench with a season-ending injury, her teammates demonstrated that they will not just make do without the junior playmaker. They showed they intend to play with a purpose.

Iowa blitzed Drake, 79-66, Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena to sweep the season series among the four in-state Division I programs and finish the non-conference season with a 12-1 record.

“Right when Tania texted us that she had torn her ACL (against UNI) she was very positive and she said, ‘I don’t want this to be about me. I want this to be about you guys,’” sophomore Makenzie Meyer said. “That put confidence into us, and now it’s just another source of motivation for the season. Now we have some fire in us, and we’re doing it for Tania.”

“Even though we lost her on the floor, her leadership is still there,” Megan Gustafson said. “She was very prominent right when we come off the court with a timeout she’s one of the first ones there, still gathering us, still getting us fired up and motivated.”

Drake coach Jennie Barancyk noticed the Hawkeyes demeanor.

“They had a lot of spirit today,” she said. “Iowa’s a good team. I don’t think anybody’s had an answer for (Iowa center) Megan Gustafson, and I thought Makenzie Meyer came out and just shot really, really well.”

The story of the game was pretty simple. Drake couldn’t rent a basket let along buy one, shooting a dismal 31.3 percent, including 25 percent in the decisive second quarter. The Bulldogs made just 8-of-39 3-point shots (20.5 percent). They came in averaging 33.4 percent.

Iowa, on the other hand, was hot from 3-point range, led by Meyer’s 5-of-10 performance. The Hawkeyes made 11-of-22 overall and 5-of-6 in the second quarter. Meyer tied her career high with 21 points, Alexis Sevillian made 4-of-8 threes for 12 points, and Gustafson was money in the paint and finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds.

After leading by five to start the second quarter, Iowa pulled away. Meyer made three 3-pointers and Kathleen Doyle two. Gustafson added six points on the interior.

Meanwhile Drake made only 4-of-16 shots and committed five turnovers as Iowa took a 46-27 halftime lead.

“I think it’s a combination of they made them, and we missed them,” Barancyk said. “When you’re not playing on your home floor and things aren’t going your way, you’ve got to find another way. We’ve got to buckle down a little bit more. If you miss shots against a very good offensive team you’re going to get yourself in a hole pretty quickly.”

“We shot the ball really well,” Bluder said. “I thought the second quarter was as good of basketball as we played this year. I thought we got our transition game going. Defensively I thought we were contesting shots.”

Essentially that was the game. Iowa led by as many as 22 in the third quarter and the lead varied, but Iowa was never in trouble.

Drake did manage 27 offensive rebounds against an Iowa zone.

“Obviously our box outs were atrocious, but besides those our defense was really good,” Bluder said.

Sophomore Becca Hittner had a career-best 27 points for the Bulldogs, but  the rest of her team struggled mightily.

Barancyk said Iowa’s defense did push her shooters out farther.

“But I think we were real stagnant on our offense,” she said. “I thought our offensive movement was better in the second half. We stood a lot in the first half. In the second half we did a much better job of having ball movement and player movement so it was a little harder to defend us.

“I loved the way we competed especially in the second half.”

Iowa will take a holiday break and return to practice Tuesday. The Hawkeyes open Big Ten play at Wisconsin Thursday.