IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Ava Heiden scored a career-high 29 points, including 12 straight for Iowa in the fourth quarter, and the No. 2-seeded Hawkeyes survived an upset bid from 15th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson with a 58-48 victory in an NCAA Tournament first-round game on Saturday.
Hannah Stuelke added 13 points and 16 rebounds for the Hawkeyes (27-6), who advanced to Monday’s second-round game against 10th-seeded Virginia.
“I just told them the most important thing is we found a way to get it done when we really weren’t playing our best,” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said.
Iowa had to escape the Knights (30-5), who came into the game with a 22-game winning streak and were never rattled by the sellout crowd of 14,332.
“The one comment that Jan made to me on the way out was, ‘This is why we have to get off the home courts. We’ve got to be neutral,'” Fairleigh Dickinson coach Stephanie Gaitley said. “That’s a pretty bold statement to say when you’re the team that earned the home court.”
Iowa only led 35-33 to start the fourth quarter and was up 42-36 when Heiden took over the game. The Knights were within 44-43 with 6:24 to play and 48-46 with 3:24 left, but Heiden answered with baskets inside each time.
“As a small-ball team they do a really good job of hitting those 3s and so they can make up pretty big deficits pretty darn quick,” Heiden said. “For us, though, it was our job to shut them down on defense and get rebounds and stops and eventually we found our groove with that.”
Iowa held the Knights to just two points over the final 5:24.
“A lot of credit to FDU,” Jensen said. “I think we got a little tight in thinking about the what-if instead of just attacking.”
Heiden was 11 of 16 from the field and added seven rebounds. Iowa shot 41.7% from the field, but made just 1 of 13 3-pointers.
“I can’t believe how many wide-open shots we missed,” Jensen said.
Kylie Feuerbach also had 11 rebounds for the Hawkeyes, who had a 47-28 rebounding advantage.
The Hawkeyes opened the game with an 18-3 run, but Fairleigh Dickinson, after a timeout, closed the first quarter with a 14-2 surge, a sign of what was to come in the game. Iowa was outscored 9-7 by the Knights in the second quarter, and only outscored them 8-7 in the third.
“We kind of went into that timeout and just everyone took a deep breath,” said guard Ava Renninger, who led the Knights with 13 points. “You got on the court, you felt the fans, you felt the atmosphere and now it’s time to dig in. Teams are going to go on their runs but we have to buckle down and play our basketball.”
Ten of Fairleigh Dickinson’s 18 field goals were 3-pointers.
“They’re scrappy,” Jensen said. “Small-ball teams, without a big inside presence, they can do a lot of damage from the 3. We did what we needed to do and I’m really thrilled and I’m proud of our team.”
Heat check
Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena doesn’t have air conditioning, and with temperatures in the high 80s outside it was even hotter courtside, where the temperature got to 90 degrees in the second half.
“When we came out for warmups, it smacked us in the face,” Renninger said of the heat.
Iowa’s players, though, said it was something they have dealt with before.
“We practice in that gym in the summer in the full Carver heat, so I think we’re used to it for the most part,” Heiden said. “Just a little early summer feel for us.”
But Jensen acknowledged that it wasn’t ideal.
“Some kids probably handle it a little bit better than others but what are we going to do?” Jensen said. “I don’t think we can fault Iowa. We can’t fault the NCAA. We’re mad at Mother Nature when it’s too cold. Now we get it warm and now we’re mad because it did it.”
The high for Monday is expected to be 53 degrees.
“So I think we should be a little bit better,” Jensen said. “We’ll cool it off.”
Up next
The Hawkeyes get a home game against Virginia, which will be playing its third game in five days in the tournament.
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