Women's Basketball Breakdown: Iowa vs. Michigan State

Hawkeyes play Spartans on day to honor Gustafson.
Women's Basketball Breakdown: Iowa vs. Michigan State
Women's Basketball Breakdown: Iowa vs. Michigan State /

Breaking down Sunday's game between Iowa and Michigan State.

Game facts

Time and place — 3 p.m., Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City

TV — BTN (Sloane Martin, play-by-play; Vera Jones, analyst))

Radio — Hawkeye Radio Network

Records — Iowa 16-3 (7-1), Michigan State 11-8 (4-4)

Rankings — Iowa is No. 19 in the Associated Press poll and No. 21 in the USA Today coaches poll.

RPI — Iowa is No. 4, Michigan State is No. 91

Series — Iowa leads, 38-28

The lineups

Iowa — Monika Czinano (C, 6-3, Soph., 15.7 ppg.), Kathleen Doyle (G, 5-9, Sr., 18.6 ppg.), Makenzie Meyer (G, 5-9, Sr., 15.2 ppg.), Alexis Sevillian (G, 5-9, Jr., 6.2 ppg.), Amanda Ollinger (G, 6-1, Sr., 6.8 ppg.)

Michigan State — Kayla Belles (F, 6-3, Soph., 6 ppg.), Nia Hollie (F, 6-0, Sr., 3.1 ppg.), Nia Clouden (G, 5-8, Soph., 14.6 ppg.), Taryn McCutcheon (G, 5-5, Sr., 11 ppg.), Moira Joiner (G, 5-10, Fr., 7 ppg.)

What to watch

Expect high emotions today. It's the day to honor Megan Gustafson, Iowa's all-time leading scorer and rebounder, who will have her jersey retired in a post-game ceremony.

The game is close to a sellout, which means Carver-Hawkeye Arena will be loud. That will be good for the Hawkeyes, who needed a late run to beat Ohio State on Thursday night. The last thing they want is to be flat for this game, but that's not going to happen.

This game will mark the halfway point of the Big Ten season for the Hawkeyes, who are tied for the league lead with Northwestern. They would like to stay there.


Published
John Bohnenkamp
JOHN BOHNENKAMP

I was with The Hawk Eye (Burlington, Iowa) for 28 years, the last 19-plus as sports editor. I've covered Iowa basketball for the last 27 years, Iowa football for the last six seasons. I'm a 17-time APSE top-10 winner, with seven United States Basketball Writers Association writing awards and one Football Writers Association of America award (game story, 1st place, 2017).