Cedar Rapids, Iowa -- Fourth-seeded Loras College defeated No. 5-seed Buena Vista 88-58 and sixth-seeded Simpson upset third-seed Coe, 90-85 in overtime during round one action of the 2018 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) Women's Basketball Tournament.
The Duhawks and Storm will be on the road for the semifinal round on Thursday, February 22. Loras will make the trip to Waverly for a match-up against No. 1-seed and Iowa Conference Regular Season Champion, second-ranked Wartburg. In the other semifinal game, Simpson will travel to Decorah to take on second-seeded Luther. Start time for both games is 7:00 p.m.
No. 4 Loras - 88, No.5 Buena Vista - 58 BOX SCORE
Loras' leading scorer was
Macenzie Kraemer with 17 points, followed by
Cyerra Hutchins with 14 points and
Kelly Barzowski with 12 points. Hutchins was also the top rebounder for the Duhawks with 11 while
Addie Oberman was second on the team with 10. The Duhawks went 34-64 from the field for a 53.1 FG% in the game. After going 0-5 from behind the arch in the first half the Duhawks made 8-12 in the second to finish with a 47.1 3FG%. Loras struggled a bit from the free throw line in the first half making just 8-14, but the Duhawks drained 4-4 in the second half.
Claudia Larsen was the top point scorer for the Beavers with 16.
Jenn Poots added 12 points as the second leading scorer and
Jasmine Demers put up eight. The the team in rebounds was Larsen with seven, followed by Demers with five and
Holly Schneider at four. Buena Vista struggled all night shooting, making just 24-70 from the field and 5-23 from three-point. At the free throw line the Beavers were only able to put in 5-15 form 33.3%.
No. 6 Simpson - 90, No. 3 Coe - 85 (OVERTIME) BOX SCORE
In an overtime barn burner,
Noreen Morrow emerged as the leading point scorer for Simpson with 28. Teammate
Jenna Taylor was the second leading scorer with 22, followed by
Victoria Hazard who added 13. It was Morrow who led the team in rebounds with eight, followed by Hazard with seven. As a team, Simpson shot 49.2% from the field, connecting on 32 of 65 shots. From three-point, the Storm shot 45%, making 9-20 and at the free throw line they made 65.4% of their opportunities. In the first half Simpson went 3-4 at the charity stripe and followed that up with an 8-14 effort in the second half. The Storm made them when it counted, going 6-8 at the free throw line in overtime.
Jenna Lehman was the leading scorer for Coe with 20 points.
Aleena Hobbs tallied 16 points as the second leading scorer and
Jackie Feldt added 15 as the third leading scorer. In the paint it was Hobbs,
Karlee Grabau and Feldt leading the way with six rebounds each. Coe made 29 of 73 shots from the field to average 39.7% on the game. In the first half they were 11-34 and followed that up with a stronger effort in the second going 14-29. From three-point the Kohawks connected on 11-30, making two key three-pointers inside of 1:30 to go in regulation. Clutch free throw shooting in the fourth quarter helped Coe push this tightly contested game to overtime. After making 2-2 in the first half, the Kohawks made 10-11 free throws in the second half and went 4-4 in OT to finish the game at 94.1%.
