Home win streak behind, Hawkeyes reset for Purdue - The Gazette

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IOWA CITY — Two days after a streak-snapping defeat, Monika Czinano was able to put it into perspective.

“That was the first time I’ve lost at Carver, and I’m a junior,” Czinano said Friday. “That’s amazing, really.”

Wednesday’s 84-82 women’s basketball overtime loss to 15th-ranked Ohio State ended Iowa’s 42-game home winning streak. It was the nation’s second-longest active home winning streak behind Baylor’s 61, which, ironically, ended Saturday with the Lady Bears’ loss to Iowa State.

“After it happened, it was, ‘Aw, man, that’s too bad,’” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “But it was more the way we lost. We were up four in overtime and had the ball.

“We saw afterward that it had been over 1,000 days since our last home loss. It was something special, but it wasn’t a goal. The kids were more upset that they lost than that the (home streak) was over.”

Bluder said that long string had not become a burden.

“The freshmen and sophomores hadn’t been part of much of it,” she said. “It was you guys (the media) that talk about it. Not us.”

Iowa (8-3 overall, 4-3 Big Ten) gets back on the floor Monday for a 3:30 p.m. tipoff at Carver with Purdue (5-5, 2-4).

It’s the first test in a challenging three-game week; the Hawkeyes face an East Coast swing with games Thursday and Sunday at Maryland and Rutgers.

“It’s a tough week for us,” she said. “We have to have full focus.”

Consecutive losses to Northwestern and Ohio State certainly have the Hawkeyes back at full attention.

“(Assistant coach) Jan (Jensen) said that winning is really good deodorant. It masks a lot of things,” Czinano said. “Losing really is a jump start. We need to reset.”

The captains called a meeting before practice Friday — “a really good one,” according to Czinano. “Kate (Martin) made some really good points, how we can do better and how we can be better.

“We’re so young in a lot of aspects. The meeting refreshed everything, and we came back to practice really, really excited.”

Iowa’s rotation remains fluid. Junior guard Tomi Taiwo, whose playing time this season has been limited, earned 10 minutes against Ohio State, and the Hawkeyes outscored the Buckeyes by 16 points while she was on the floor. Alexis Sevillian did not play.

“Before each game, we meet about our rotation,” Bluder said. “A lot of it is determined by what we see in practice and what we need to do to win. I really challenged the team defensively, and Tomi really proved herself on defense in practice, so she moved up.”

Logan Cook played 19 minutes, Sharon Goodman less than one.

“That was based more matchup-based,” Bluder said. “I just felt that Logan was a better matchup for their posts.”

Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com

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