IU women fall to Hawkeyes 75-70

It was senior day in Carver-Hawkeye arena, and it was a pair of seniors who put on a show in Iowa City Thursday Night.

The second half belonged to Hawkeyes senior Morgan Johnson, who willed her team to a victory as Iowa erased a 10-point halftime deficit to beat the Hoosiers 75-50. 

Senior Forward Aulani Sinclair scored a game-high 31 points and broke the IU record for 3-point makes in a single season by hitting seven in the game. The makes gave her 72 on the season, pushing her past Kameelah Morgan's mark of 70 from the 1998-99 season. 

“I knew I had to come out tonight and if I had the shot, take it,” Sinclair said. “I couldn’t pass up open shots. They were going in that beginning so I just got that good feeling and just kept shooting them.”

Sinclair went 7-of-11 from long range to lead the IU perimeter attack. The Hoosiers made a school-record 13 threes on 50 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

It was Johnson and fellow senior Jamie Printy who made the clutch baskets down the stretch that spoiled Sinclair’s heroics.

With Iowa down two and 7:29 left in the game, Johnson was fouled on a drive and made both free throws to tie the game for the first time since it was 2-2 less than two minutes into the game.

After the teams traded baskets, Printy buried a three to give Iowa its first lead, 65-62, with 3:26 left. Sinclair responded by nailing a three from the right wing off the inbounds pass from Jasmine McGhee.

Following a Theairra Taylor three, Johnson hit back-to-back midrange jumpers to give Iowa its largest lead, 72-65, with 1:20 to go.

Sinclair added a three and a long two in the last 1:03, but it was too little, too late as Printy hit two free throws and Johnson one to seal the game.

“You gotta credit their seniors for making plays down the stretch,” IU Coach Curt Miller said. “(Jamie) Printy and Johnson- you expect your seniors to make big plays at this time of the year and they did.”

The Hoosiers allowed the Hawkeyes to shoot 61 percent in the second half after limiting Iowa to a 40-percent clip in the first half.

Iowa started the second half on a 9-3 run through the first 5-plus minutes before freshman Nicole Bell made a three from the left wing, courtesy of a Milika Taufa offensive rebound and kickout. The make put IU up 52-43 IU with 14:47 remaining.

The Hawkeyes then rattled off a 15-8 run before Johnson’s free throws tied it at 60.

Taylor came off the bench to score six points in the run, including a pair of long jumpers and a coast-to-coast layup after she stripped Sinclair.

The Hoosiers committed 12 of their 21 turnovers in the second half and cooled off from the floor. They shot 40 percent in the second half after hitting 53 percent of their shots in the first.

“Unfortunately a little too many turnovers led to too many points off turnovers,” Miller said. “We didn’t dig in and get enough stops in the second half.”

IU started the game on an 11-2 run as Sinclair hit back-to-back threes in transition followed by a three from Jasmine McGhee.

Sinclair scored 12 points over the next 10:40 on a pair of long jumpers, two threes and a drive to the hoop as IU took its largest lead of the game, 36-18, with 6:16 to go in the first half.

“We got hot early scoring over them and then making jumpers,” Miller said. “I think we fell a little in love with the 3-point line tonight but we were really shooting the ball well early on.

“We just wanted to be the aggressor. We wanted to go at them and not let them dictate the game with their defensive pressure.”

Iowa Sophomore guard Melissa Dixon answered with three consecutive 3-pointers to cut the IU lead back to single digits, 36-27, with 4:26 left in the half.

Dixon, who comes off the bench for the Hawkeyes, scored a team-high 22 points in 34 minutes on 8-of-16 shooting including 5-of-13 from deep.

“She continues to stake claim to be the sixth man of the year and is just such an offensive weapon,” Miller said. “She has the quickest release in the league and you’ve got to guard her every possession.”

Taylor, also a reserve, finished with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting in 27 minutes as Iowa’s bench outscored IU’s 22-0.

The Hawkeyes also enjoyed a 27-7 advantage in points off turnovers and 17-2 in fast break points.

“We’re gonna build on this as a young program and we’ll  hopefully use the disappointment for energy going into our senior day, (our) final game of the year,” Miller said.