By Susan Harman

IOWA CITY, Iowa – This was the first game in which injuries caught up with the Iowa women’s basketball team. After losing starting guards Tania Davis (ACL) and Makenzie Meyer (broken finger), Iowa toughed out victories over Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois.

A loss at highly ranked Maryland was understandable, but losing at home to Purdue, 76-70, on Saturday really brought home how those injuries have constrained the Hawkeyes (15-3, 3-2).

Purdue (12-7, 3-2) hadn’t won at Iowa since 2008.

“It’s been a long time since we came in here and competed like this,” Purdue coach Sharon Versyp said. “This team has a lot of grit, a lot of toughness. They’ve been inconsistent because we’re very young, but we had a senior who shined today and put everybody on her back.”

Offensively Iowa was one-dimensional, albeit that one dimension was other-worldly center Megan Gustafson, who finished with a career-high 37 points and 14 rebounds.

“Megan played great, but we need to get more people involved than Megan in our offense,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “It kind of looked like we were waiting around and letting her do the work for us.”

In trying to balance its offense Iowa got no help from beyond the arc, making 3-of-16 3-pointers. Alexis Sevillian was 1-for-9 and Kathleen Doyle 1-for-6. In their defense they are called upon to play a lot of minutes with the only reserve guard being walk-on Zion Sanders, but Iowa was also coming off a bye week.

Coach Lisa Bluder was not unhappy with the shots taken.

“I feel like Chase (Coley) could have taken more shots. I feel like Hannah (Stewart) could have taken more shots,” Bluder said.           

The only other player to score as many as 10 points was Coley.

“We need more baskets out of our three position with Carly (Mohns) and Amanda (Ollinger). It makes it really hard when no one is hitting from the outside, and you can’t open things up for Megan.”

Iowa committed 16 turnovers, and the vast majority came on forced post feeds that ended up out of bounds or in Purdue’s hands.

Purdue’s defense got a lift off the bench from 6-foot-6 junior Nora Kiesler, who helped 6-3 Ae’Rianna Harris clog up the middle and pound on Gustafson. Iowa went from a 16-11 first quarter lead to giving up a run of eight consecutive scoring possessions in the second quarter and was fortunate to be tied at 32 at halftime.

“I thought we played a great first quarter,” Bluder said. “But midway through the second quarter I thought Purdue took control of the game. Our defensive intensity just wasn’t what it needed to be. I think we scored enough points to win. In my mind I think it was our defense.”

Purdue exploited Iowa’s defense in the second half with a double-edged sword of dribble penetration and 3-point shooting. Senior Andreona Keys scored a career best 34 points that including making 4 of 5 3-point shots.

“They did a triangle-and-two a lot, so the rest of us were open,” Keys said. “I shot the ball today. My coaches said ‘You’re open; shoot it.’ I got into a flow and tried to take my shots but also give other people following me a kick.

“A lot of teams are going to push us out and make us shoot, but we kept on attacking and it was open for us today.”

Guards Karissa McLaughlin and Dominique Oden combined for 31 points.

“She made seven threes on the year, and she made four tonight,” Bluder said. “Her penetration is really good. She’s very good off the dribble. She’s strong taking it to the hole, and we just didn’t have an answer for her.”

“We were able to get up and down and made a lot of transition buckets,” Versyp said. “They weren’t always layups, but we were able to knock down shots. Dominique Oden really made a run in that third quarter.

Overall Purdue made 9-of-17 threes and shot 51 percent from the field. The Boilermakers average 35 percent from 3-point range.

Iowa plays at Nebraska on Tuesday, the first of three consecutive road games.“The most important thing is just to stay positive. Even though the defense wasn’t there tonight that doesn’t mean it cant be,” Gustafson said.