IOWA CITY, Iowa – Since the NCAA women’s tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994, a No. 2-seed has never lost to a No. 15-seed. On an unusually warm March day in Iowa on Saturday, more than 14,000 fans in Carver-Hawkeye Arena were sweating it out, hoping their Hawkeyes wouldn’t be the first.
With 6:24 left in the fourth quarter, No. 15 Fairleigh Dickinson came within one point of No. 2 Iowa when FDU’s Kailee McDonald scored off an Iowa turnover to tighten the score 44-43. The closest FDU came again was 48-46 at the 5:24 mark before Iowa – a 31-point favorite – pulled away and won 58-48.
“We found a way to win. What I told the players is there’s no time where the phrase ‘survive and advance’ is more true than in March,” Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said in a post-game press conference.
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Less than a week after a blizzard shut down stretches of Iowa highways, the temperature outside topped 90 degrees. Without air-conditioning in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the temperature also rose inside to 90 degrees at its peak as the arena filled up for the mid-afternoon game despite the court level being underground.
While the heat was definitely noticeable and adjustments had to be made, players and coaches from both teams said it did not affect the way they played or the outcome of the game.
“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. Just a little early summer feel for us,” said Iowa sophomore center Ava Heiden, who led the Hawkeyes with a career-high 29 points.
Jensen said she always tells her team to “control the controllables” – which the weather is not.
“That will probably never happen in 100 years…So we can go and everybody’s going to critique that, but it’s unfortunate,” she said. “It wasn’t great. It wasn’t ideal. Some kids probably handle it a little bit better than others but what are we going to do? 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.”
FDU sophomore guard Ava Renninger, who led the Knights with 13 points and five rebounds, said the difference in temperature between the locker rooms and the court was stark, she didn’t let it affect her play.
“Coming out for warmups it was like a smack in the face how hot it was in there…It was really hot but I don’t think it affected how we played at all and I was really proud of how we handled it,” she said. “It was extremely hot in there and I think everyone felt it, but we didn’t let it play into how we played our game.”
FDU head coach Stephanie Gaitley said she made an adjustment with her post players due to the heat.
“We went in two-minute shifts which we haven’t done. We usually take them to the media timeout, make a sub right before the media timeout but I think the heat was getting to them,” she told reporters. “Kailee [McDonald] can go all day. Madlena [Gerke] can go all day. As you saw with Ava, all day. The guards pretty much can stick with the 40 minutes. The fours were getting worn down because of the physicality of the game…The philosophy there with the heat was do a two-minute rotation on the bigs.”
Despite the heat, Jensen played only seven players, opting for experience in a sticky post-season situation.
“We had to go with experience. That’s what I told the players in the locker room that are young,” she said. “Some didn’t get in. Some got in but didn’t play as much as the normal minutes. But you kind of see how the game is flowing and you just have to read.”
“I just had to go with experience and Ava, she’s a workhorse, and you have to get this one before you get the next one,” Jensen added. “That’s just an experienced team. Hannah’s [Stuelke] been there and Kylie’s [Feuerbach] been there.”
This wasn’t the first time Iowa as a second-seed was in danger of losing to a 15-seed. Jensen said she told the team of the talented 2019 squad that narrowly defeated Mercer, 66-61, in the first round at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“Megan Gustafson…she was the center. Tania Davis was our point guard. Kathleen Doyle was our off guard. We went to the Elite Eight. We were behind Mercer with 2:53 left and Megan is one of the best post players ever,” Jensen said. “It was just the tightness…it reminded me of that.”
While there is no such thing as a moral victory, Renniger said FDU’s performance Saturday in a hot, hostile environment should put people on notice about the quality of women’s basketball at all levels.
“I think first it puts a lot of respect on the NEC [Northeast Conference] and mid-major schools. They’re a top-10 team in the country and we came in and showed what we’re made of and showed what mid-major schools can do against these high teams and that’s the impression we gave off,” she said.
Her coach agreed.
“I think Ava hit it on the head,” Gaitley said. “The respect that we brought to the NEC and that we brought to FDU and to show that on any given day anybody can beat anybody, I think that’s a huge step forward for women’s basketball in the east.”
Virginia pulls off the upset to advance
The first game of the day was just as spicy as No. 10 Virginia defeated No. 7 Georgia 82-73 in overtime to advance to the second round against Iowa.
In a back-and-forth game that was close from the starting tip, Virginia forward Romi Levy banked in a corner 3-pointer with 1:29 left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 71. The game would remain knotted at 71 at the end of regulation.
Sa’Myah Smith, who started out hot but went scoreless in the second half, scored five points in overtime. She ended the game with 23 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
“I didn’t want to lose. This team is not done yet…We’re fighting, fighting every game. So, I’m just doing what I have to do to help my team win,” Smith told reporters after the game.
Virginia head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said Smith wanted to redeem herself after a tough outing against Arizona State on Thursday night, in which she went 1-5 and scored just 2 points.
“It was different. She had a different look in her eyes. And he she was ready to get back on the court. She didn’t want Arizona State to be the last time she stepped on the court and didn’t perform up to her potential,” Agugua-Hamilton said in a post-game press conference.
“Just really proud of her…her story of resilience, I would be remiss I didn’t bring that up, is one that really touches your heart,” Agugua-Hamilton said about Smith. “She’s been here since May, and right when she got here in May, she had a knee surgery. Tried to fight back from that, and then had another one right before the season and missed the first eight or nine games or so,”
“She was playing great, kind of like this, for about three games, and then her mother passed away. And that derailed her obviously. You can understand that. When she started trying to get back from that, then her grandfather passed away,” she continued. “It’s just been a lot for her. Every time she turns around, something is happening…There were times where she was like, ‘I don’t even know if I can do this anymore.’ She was just fighting for her team, fighting for this coaching staff, fighting for this university.”
Virginia junior guard Kymora Johnson, who grew up just minutes from the Virginia campus in Charlottesville, led all scorers with 28 points and added seven rebounds and six assists.
“I’m just proud to be able to put Charlottesville back on the map, a place where I’m from, where I grew up,” she told reporters Saturday.
Agugua-Hamilton credited Georgia and their coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson.
“Georgia played a great game. I have a lot of respect for Coach Abe –a very good friend of mine and well-coached team,” she said. “They had a great year. You hate to take out one of your friends, but it’s about us, and I’m excited that we’re still here.”
Abrahamson-Henderson agreed it is difficult to play against your close friends.
“I’m excited for her. I would prefer not to play my friends. She probably wouldn’t want to play us and I don’t really want to play them. I’m very close with their whole staff. I was in her wedding,” she said. “It’s tough because they want so much success for us and I want so much success for them, and so it’s just a tough situation. But you just got to let it go and play the game.”
Georgia’s Mia Woolfolk had 27 points while Rylie Theuerkauf had 22 points to lead the Bulldogs.
“That’s her night every night. That’s not just here. It’s in the SEC every time. To me I always refer to her as Shaq,” Abrahamson-Henderson said of Woolfolk.
After two tight games in three days, Virginia will balance recovery with preparation. But Agugua-Hamilton wants her team to enjoy the moment while staying focused.
“We just got to continue to stay present. I think you take everything one game at a time,” she said. “Each scout has been completely different. These scouts will be different, and we’ve just got to stay locked in.”
“[The] most important thing is I want our team to enjoy this journey. You play your whole season to make it to the Big Dance. And we want to take — we don’t want to take any moments for granted. We just want to have fun with each other, stay locked in,” she added. “But when we’re focusing on the game plan and we’re focusing on the scout, we’ve got to lock in. But outside of that, enjoy each other. This is a blessing to be here. All the glory goes to God…We just don’t want to take any of it for granted or miss out on celebrating any moments.”
No. 2 Iowa and No. 10 Virginia play in the second round at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 1 p.m. CT Monday. The game will be televised on ESPN.
And the forecast for Iowa City? A much more seasonable 50 degrees.
