Iowa, BYU look to bounce back from conference tourney routs meet in first round

3/16/2006 2:28 AM

Iowa and Brigham Young would like to forget their conference tournament performances. A first-round victory in the NCAA's will help one of them do just that.

The seventh-seeded Cougars (25-5) and 10th-seeded Hawkeyes (17-11) face off in a San Antonio Regional matchup Saturday at Denver's Pepsi Center.

Iowa was on the bubble after losing 79-58 to No. 16 Michigan State on March 3 in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals. But the Hawkeyes received their conference's fifth and final bid one year after they were left out of the field of 64.

``I can't tell you what an excited locker room that was when our name popped up,'' Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said.

``This last eight days has been pretty tough just to sit and hope and think. We tried to remain optimistic because I think it's really hard to practice ... without thinking you're going to be in and we tried to practice like we were going to be in.''

The Hawkeyes overcame several key injuries this season and defeated ranked opponents in Purdue and Michigan State.

Senior guard Crystal Smith led the team with 17.2 points per game.

``Now we want to go out and really prove something,'' she said. ``I've had a good feeling about this all week. Aside from the tournament loss, I think we really deserved to get invited after the season we had.''

A victory Saturday would give Iowa a second-round matchup with either No. 2 seed Oklahoma or No. 15 seed Pepperdine on Monday. The Hawkeyes lost to Oklahoma 85-68 on Nov. 25.

The Cougars opened the season 19-1 and were regular season champions in the Mountain West Conference, but got routed 84-60 by then-No. 19 Utah Saturday in conference tournament's title game.

Dani Kubik led BYU with 12 points and Ambrosia Anderson added 11 in a game where the Cougars never led and trailed by as many as 27 points.

But the Cougars have proven they can beat top competition, going 7-4 this season against teams in the NCAA tournament including wins over No. 5 seeds UCLA and Utah.

Anderson leads the Cougars, averaging 17.9 points per game. She was voted Mountain West co-player of the year with Utah's Kim Smith.

``These girls have worked their whole lives for a chance to go to the NCAA Tournament,'' BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. ``You've got to get up for games like this. We have a week to prepare for Iowa. It is a great team and will be a great challenge.''

This is BYU's seventh NCAA tournament appearance, and first since an opening-round loss to Colorado in 2003.