The Redbirds (1-1) opened the 2012-13 season with the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) this past weekend. ISU came away victorious, 62-45 in a first-round matchup versus Morehead State on Friday at the Shirk Center in Bloomington for its fourth straight season-opening victory.

“I think we did well in a lot of areas, especially our rebounding, and that was consistent throughout the game offensively and defensively,” ISU head coach Stephanie Glance said. “The only glaring thing to me was our [20] turnovers.”

The Redbirds advanced to the second road game against Iowa in Iowa City on Sunday and lost, 74-64.

“When you let a team shoot 41 free throws in a game, I’m not sure you’re ever going to win any game like that,” Glance said. “We were fouling and that has nothing to do with officiating … we’ve got to have help offensively. We can’t go through the season with two people scoring.”

ISU 62, MSU 45

Two Redbirds notched double figure scoring numbers as senior guard Jamie Russell led the Redbirds with 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting attempts and six assists. Sophomore forward Maddie Oliver chipped in with 12 points and seven rebounds. Freshman forward Octavia Crump had a team-high 11 rebounds and seven points.

Ashley Koenig / Daily Vidette Staff Photographer: Senior guard Jamie Russell led the Redbirds in both road games last weekend, netting 20 points against Morehead State and 30 points against Iowa. Russell also added 12 rebounds in ISU’s effort against Iowa.

MSU held its only lead of the game at 13-11 early in the contest, but the Redbirds went on a 13-2 run from there, including buckets from Russell, Crump and Oliver to take a 24-15 lead with 6:42 left in the first half. The Eagles outscored the ’Birds 11-7 the rest of the period, and ISU held just a five-point lead, 31-26 at halftime.

Freshman guard Alexis Foley came out of the locker room with two straight three-pointers to up the Redbirds’ lead to 37-26. The Eagles went on a 9-3 run to get within five points again at 40-35 with 14:16 left in the second half, but MSU did not get any closer than that for the rest of the game.

ISU went on an 8-1 run to grab a 48-36 advantage with 9:12 remaining in the contest. The Redbirds outscored MSU the rest of the way, 14-9, including holding the Eagles scoreless the last 2:41 of the game to win it, 62-45.

Iowa 74, ISU 64

Russell and sophomore forward Janae Smith accounted for over 70 percent of ISU’s scoring on the afternoon. Russell led the way with 30 points, 12 rebounds and eight steals while Smith added 17 points and nine boards.

After holding just a three-point deficit at 15-12 with 12:01 left in the first half, the Redbirds were not able to get any closer throughout the rest of the game. The Hawkeyes went on a 9-0 run to grab a 24-12 advantage.

From there, ISU outscored Iowa 14-8 via eight points from Russell, four credited to Smith and two points from Grace to slice the deficit in half at six points, 32-26, with 2:52 left in the opening half. However, the Hawkeyes managed to extend their lead to ten scores by the end of the half, 39-29.

Iowa doubled its lead to go up by 20 points, 65-45 with 5:13 left in the game. The Hawkeyes held their largest lead of the game with a 22-score advantage at 72-50 with 3:20 remaining in the contest, but the Redbirds battled back.

ISU went on a 14-2 run to end the game and fall by 10 points, 74-64, the closest margin in the second half since the early going. The run was highlighted by Russell’s six points, four points from junior guard Chloe Nelson and two points credited to sophomore guard Katy Winge and Smith apiece.