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UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 21, 2017

Lisa Bluder

Iowa City, Iowa

Minnesota - 65, Iowa - 80

LISA BLUDER: First of all, I thought our crowd was great today. I really appreciate them coming out, supporting us, giving us some great energy, especially in that first half when it was kind of back and forth. But I thought after the first quarter, our defense was pretty good, especially our two-point defense. I thought we did a great job defensively on Carlie Wagner in the second half, holding her to two baskets in the second half, and you know, Tinjum had 10 at the half, she ended up with 20.

So I think we did a good job adjusting and keeping aware of where those kids were in the second half. Kathleen Doyle kind of led us the first half and Tania Davis did so in the second half. It's nice to have two players on the court that are able to do that. Tania has a season-high eight assists and only one turnover today, and Megan has her 10th double-double of the year, and it really feels good. Because I feel like this is four good games that we've put together in a row now.

Q. Really convincing win against a good team, this has to do a lot for the confidence?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, winning is good for a lot of things, definitely for building confidence though. We've got to take this into Maryland. We know that's a tough place to go again play them right away. But, again, I just feel like we're playing very well right now, and that feels good for our players. I think they're having fun out there and playing confidently, and that's what you want your players to do right now.

Q. The importance of coming out of the locker room at halftime, this is two games in a row you've kind of controlled the third period. Just the benefits of that coming out?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, I mean, I guess I'd like to do it right from the start if we could. That would be nice. But coming out with strong effort in that third quarter and giving yourself a cushion going into the fourth quarter is certainly a good thing.

Q. Talking about the momentum you have going, is the bye coming at a bad time? Is this a time you want to continue playing games?
LISA BLUDER: I kind of do. It's also hard sitting on a loss and having a bye right after a loss. I don't know what's worse. You're on a roll and you want to keep going. I guess, really being able to practice and work on some things this week after a win is not a bad thing. Because I think you come to practice with a little more pep in your step after a win than after a loss.

Do people say pep in their step anymore?

Q. You don't see the final statistics, but I know you had your assist-to-field-goal ratio is high again. That's nice to see.
LISA BLUDER: Love that. You know, we've had a little bit of an issue of taking care of the basketball. It was nice to see only 11 turnovers and I think three of those were charges, so great job taking care of the ball. And I love the high assists. I mean, we have 24 on 31 baskets. That just shows great team work. I think that's a fun style to play, and I think our players really enjoy that.

Q. You had 16 first half points in the paint as a whole, and in the third quarter you had 14 alone. Do you think you put a lot of emphasis on that during halftime to have your guards attack the zone and hit the bigs down low?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, it ended up being 13 to 38 paint points, and when you're scoring 38 points in the paint against the zone, that's pretty good. That's a focused effort on getting the ball inside against the zone. I didn't really care how they did it, whether it was hitting our post players or hitting a quarter. But we felt we needed to get the ball inside versus Minnesota.

Q. I know it's still early, but there is such a clump in the middle of the Big Ten. This puts you alone in fifth. How critical is it to be on the high end of that when you get to March?
LISA BLUDER: Yeah, and a win over Minnesota when we play them one time is really important. Last year we lost in a buzzer beater at their place in our solo meeting. So when we play these teams once, it's nice to be able to win, because head-to-head competition at the end of the year, it bumps you ahead of them. And when you're only playing three doubles, that's pretty important.

Plus it was a good RPI victory. They're in the 40s in the RPI. I don't know if they will stay there rest of the year, but certainly right now that's a good RPI victory for us as well.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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