By John Bohnenkamp
There was never any defensive solution that worked against Maya McDermott until the end.
The Northern Iowa fifth-year guard tormented Iowa with second-half shots that the Hawkeyes knew were coming, and yet couldn’t stop.
But while McDermott was bobbing and weaving and hit shots from all kinds of angles, UNI never got a lead.
And that made a difference.
The Hawkeyes’ 92-86 win over the Panthers on Friday night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena was about Iowa surviving the confidence of a UNI team that always has the same motto.
“We like to say, ‘House money,’” McDermott said, and the Panthers played it with the cool of a Vegas gambler.
The story of the game was as much about the peskiness of the Panthers as it was the poise of the Hawkeyes, who let UNI get oh-so-close before staying in control.
“We didn’t falter,” said guard Taylor McCabe, who was a big-shot artist in her own right, scoring 15 points on five 3-pointers. “We kept changing up things and trying different stuff. So I really do feel like we were in control for the most part.”