The Iowa women's basketball team defeated Missouri State in the opening round of the N.I.T. (National Invitational Tournament) Thursday night, and it was a record-setting night for two different Hawkeye players.

It was an especially special night for Iowa City native Ally Disterhoft. The senior scored 21 points in Iowa's 95-74 win and became Iowa's new all-time leading scorer in the process. She now has 2,061 points, two more than Cindy Haugejorde who played for Iowa from 1976-1980.

After the game, Ally was asked about her feelings. Her response in the postgame press conference was simply beautiful:

Honestly, I just have to give it all
up to the big man upstairs. But relief was probably the
biggest emotion at that time. We haven't made it a
focal point in our conversation within the team room or
with the coaches, but it's definitely been a topic of
conversation outside Carver. And Haley came up to
me before the game in shoot-around and said, Ally, just
don't put too much pressure on yourself. And I think I
just needed to hear that from her. To go out there, to
obviously play aggressive, take the shots when they
were there, but just continue to play team basketball.
And it's hard not to get emotional because I've had so
many people support me along the way, my coaches
have been incredible, my teammates, my family. So,
relief, but happy with that."

 

It was also a big night for Iowa sophomore Megan Gustafson who grabbed 10 rebounds, giving her 307 on the season. That's a single-season record for Iowa women's basketball, breaking Amy Herrig's (1998-1999 season) mark of 306.

Next up for the Iowa women is a battle against South Dakota, who won the women's N.I.T. last season. The game will be played Saturday (3/18) afternoon at 3 p.m. in Iowa City.

[via University of Iowa Sports Information, Gazette, and NIT]

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