Michigan State University
Iowa
MSU Women's Basketball Beats Iowa, 68-58
2/27/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2003
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Senior Syreeta Bromfield (Kingston, Jamaica) totaled 18 points and nine rebounds as Michigan State earned a tough 68-58 road victory Thursday night at Iowa. Sophomore Kelli Roehrig (Papillion, Neb.) poured in 17 points and freshman Lindsay Bowen (Dansville) added 14 as MSU snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 16-10 overall and 9-6 in the Big Ten.
The victory kept MSU in a tie for fifth-place in the Big Ten with Illinois, one-half game behind Ohio State. A victory in Sunday's regular-season finale against Northwestern would give the Spartans a tie for fourth place with Ohio State, whose regular season is complete, and Illinois could join the pack with a win at Indiana. However, both Ohio State and Illinois hold tie-breaker advantages over MSU for seeding in the Big Ten Tournament.
Michigan State used a big advantage from the free throw line (18 made free throws to 6) and outrebounded Iowa 43-31 to collect its fourth Big Ten road victory of the season, and guarantee MSU its best Big Ten record since the 1996-97 team finished 12-4. Defense was a key for MSU, which limited Iowa (14-12, 6-9) to 21 first-half points and held the Hawkeyes to 37.7 percent shooting (23-of-61), including just 6-of-24 from three-point range (25.0 percent).
"It was an excellent basketball game," said MSU head coach Joanne P. McCallie. "I was very pleased with our team's defense. It was great to see us work together as a team. Our objective is to go into the conference tournament playing the best defense we've played all year, and this was an excellent start."
Michigan State took control early, racing to a 12-3 lead after back-to-back buckets by Bromfield. Iowa inched within 23-21 with 3:20 left in the first half, but MSU finished the first stanza with five straight points, capped by a layup from senior Jennifer Callier (Indianapolis, Ind.) to go into the lockerroom with a 28-21 lead.
Iowa came out firing in the second half, scoring almost as many points (18) in the first seven minutes as it did in the entire first half. A three-point play by Iowa's Jamie Cavey gave the Hawkeyes a 39-35 lead with 13:11 remaining.
MSU responded in a big way, taking a 40-39 lead on a pair of Bromfield free throws during a spurt that would eventually reach 18-2 after a three-point bomb by Bowen put MSU on top 53-41 with 4:55 remaining. Iowa committed five turnovers and missed seven straight shots while being held scoreless for six-and-a-half minutes during the run.
Another Bowen triple gave MSU its biggest lead at 56-43 with 4:30 left. Iowa answered with a 7-0 burst to cut the lead to 56-50 with 2:49 remaining, but a basket by Roehrig stopped the spurt, and MSU made all 10 of its free throws in the final two minutes to hold off the Hawkeyes.
After a 1-for-4 first half, MSU sank 17-of-19 free throws (89.5 percent) in the second period to finish the game 18-of-23 (78.3 percent). Iowa attempted just 10 free throws, making six. Michigan State shot 42.6 percent from the field (23-of-54) and 44.4 percent from three-point range (4-of-9).
Freshman Liz Shimek (Empire) was held to a career-low three points but had a game-high 10 rebounds for MSU, while junior Julie Pagel (Utica) added eight points and seven rebounds and sophomore Kristin Haynie (Mason) dished out six assists.
Michigan State's regular season finale against Northwestern will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Breslin Center. Free admission will be granted to anyone wearing Michigan State apparel.
Spartan Notebook:
* By sinking all 10 of its free throw attempts in the final two minutes of the game, MSU improved its free throw percentage during the final two minutes of close games (single digit deficits) to 93.9 percent (31-of-33) for the season.
* Kristin Haynie's six assists give her 125 for the season, moving her into 10th place on the MSU single-season assist chart.
* Lindsay Bowen was 4-of-5 from three-point range, giving her 70 three-pointers for the season, which is four shy of the MSU single-season record. She is shooting 48.3 percent from three-point distance this season.
