Iowa avoids meltdown in stifling Carver-Hawkeye Arena for NCAA Tournament first-round win

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Record-breaking temperatures outside Carver-Hawkeye Arena turned Iowa’s basketball home into a sauna Saturday afternoon, and the second-seeded Hawkeyes nearly melted down in the oppressive heat.

With the on-floor temperature peaking at 90 degrees during the fourth quarter, Iowa (27-6) repeatedly blew three-score leads and led 15th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson by just two points inside the game’s final five minutes. Despite missing eight of 12 free throws over the last 83 seconds, the Hawkeyes overcame the sultry conditions and outlasted the Knights 58-48 in an NCAA Tournament first-round game.

The stifling heat capped one of the most chaotic weather weeks in the region’s history. On Selection Sunday, a blizzard gripped Eastern Iowa, sending real-air temperatures plummeting below zero with winds raging near 50 mph and several inches of snow. Carver-Hawkeye Arena’s court and seating areas do not have air conditioning because so few events require it. So the unexpectedly quick rise in temperatures had real consequences for the competitors and the crowd.

“Coming out for warmups, it was like a smack in the face how hot it was in there,” said Fairleigh Dickinson guard Ava Renninger, who scored a team-high 13 points. “I already sweat a lot as it is. There was a towel or two towels given to me every timeout, every break possible.”

“It wasn’t great, it wasn’t ideal, but some kids probably handle it a little bit better than others but what are we going to do?” Iowa coach Jan Jensen said. “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.”

Fairleigh Dickinson coach Stephanie Gaitley took the heat in stride. “It’s great because it’s like an instant diet. I was like, ‘Yes! Five pounds shed easy,’” she said. But the heat forced her to shift her post players’ substitution pattern by cutting their rotations down to two minutes, rather than replacing them around the media timeouts.

“It was really hot, but I don’t think it affected how we played at all,” Renninger said.

The heat perhaps impacted the Hawkeyes, who cruised to a 20-5 lead in the first quarter. But a bevy of turnovers and poor shot selection, coupled with Fairleigh Dickinson’s sizzling perimeter shooting, turned the game into a competitive matchup. The Knights connected on four 3-pointers to end the first quarter. By the start of the second quarter, they had climbed within one point on a 14-0 run.

But in the end, there was too much Ava Heiden, who notched a career-high 29 points. Heiden, a sophomore, hit 11 of 16 from the field and connected on all seven free throw attempts. She scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and added seven total rebounds.

“Ava is one of the best players in the country, I believe,” Jensen said. “(She’s) certainly one of the top centers in the country, my opinion, top five.”

Heiden’s performance masked Iowa’s overall deficiencies at the free-throw line and the perimeter. Outside of Heiden, the Hawkeyes were just 10 of 22 from the line, which kept the Knights within striking distance throughout the game. Fairleigh Dickinson hit 10 3-pointers while Iowa connected on just 1 of 13 3-point attempts. But the Knights missed their last six shots and attempted just two free throws during the game.

Iowa faces 10th-seeded Virginia (21-11), which beat No. 7 seed Georgia 82-73 in overtime, on Monday. Fairleigh Dickinson (30-5) had won 22 straight before falling to the Hawkeyes. No. 2 seeds are now 127-0 against No. 15 seeds in the women’s NCAA tournament.