By Hawkeyesports.com

IOWA CITY – Highlighted by a 38-point third quarter, the University of Iowa women’s basketball team, shot its way to a season-opening 96-81 victory over Northern Iowa to open the 2020 season inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Wednesday night.

Coach Lisa Bluder improves to a perfect 21-0 in season openers at Iowa, and it’s a bounce-back win from last season’s 88-66 loss to UNI.

“This one feels good to get back,” Bluder said. “We sat on (last season’s) loss for a while last year. I was excited to get going and start another year, but it didn’t feel the same. The environment is so special in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Not having the energy from our crowd is a big one.”

Despite having no fans in the stands, Iowa put on an offensive clinic, scoring the most points against UNI since the 2002-2003 season.

The Hawkeyes jumped out to a fast start, leading 19-4 midway through the first quarter, but the Panthers slowly chipped away in the second quarter, taking a 30-29 lead, which would be the first and only lead for UNI.

Iowa closed out the first half on an 8-0 run to lead 43-36 at the break, before shooting 66.7 percent (10-of-15) from the floor, 75 percent (6-of-8) from deep, and 85.7 percent from the charity stripe (12-of-14) in a fast-paced third quarter.

“That third quarter was about as good of quarter as we’ve seen,” Bluder said. “We shot the ball well in all areas.”

In a quarter that barely saw the shot clock below 20 seconds, Gabbie Marshall put an exclamation on the scoring outburst with a corner three as time expired in the third to give Iowa a 63-44 lead heading into the fourth.

UNI, who was led by Kam Finley’s 22 points, outscored the Hawkeyes in the fourth, but the Hawkeyes left the court with a 15-point victory.