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Hawks, Huskers try to rebound

Iowa entertains Nebraska in Big Ten’s 2nd round

T-R GRAPHIC

IOWA CITY — Both the Iowa and Nebraska women will seek to get the New Year’s Eve celebration started early when the two teams meet today in Iowa City.

The Cornhuskers (4-9, 0-1) will battle the Hawkeyes (9-5, 0-1) for the first conference victory of the season. Both teams dropped their Big Ten openers on the road to Northwestern at home and on the road at Illinois, respectively.

For Iowa, the key will to have both Megan Gustafson and Ally Disterhoft locked in, wire to wire. Gustafson leads the Hawkeyes with 10.4 rebounds per game and registered a double-double in the 70-65 loss to Illinois earlier this week. It was her 17th career double-double and the eighth of the season. Gustafson is one of 10 players to register eight or more double-doubles this year.

There hasn’t been on game this season where Gustafson hasn’t led the Hawkeyes on the glass and will need to continue her crashing dominance in hopes for a Big Ten win.

On the scoring front, Disterhoft will lead the Hawkeyes with her 17.4 points per game mark. The senior scorer, too, tallied a double-double against Illinois with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

It was an off night for Disterhoft, who was 0-for-8 from 3-point land, despite being a 40.8 percent trey shooter. Disterhoft sits at No. 5 all-time in school history on the scoring list with 1,785 career points. She’s just 274 points off all-time leader Cindy Haugejorde’s 2,059.

Both Tania Davis and Kathleen Doyle have 51 assists on the year and will continue looking for Disterhoft, Gustafson and other shooters throughout the evening.

For Nebraska, which is coming off a 62-58 loss against Northwestern, will be led by Jessica Shepard’s 17.9 points per game. She’s averaging a double-double with 10.8 rebounds, while just being a sophomore. Esther Ramacieri is dishing out 3.2 assists per game for the Cornhuskers, a mark that leads her team as well.

Nebraska leads Iowa all-time in the series, 12-11, however Iowa has won the last four games — once last year, and three times at Nebraska, at Iowa and the Big Ten Tournament in 2014-15. Iowa won last year 74-68 in Lincoln.

Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

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