The Iowa Hawkeyes (12-3, 2-2) remain winless on the road after a 70-67 loss to the Minnesota Golden Gophers (10-5, 3-1). Bennett Stirtz picked up two quick fouls in the first half and spent the frame in and out
of two-foul jail. During the first stretch on the bench, Kael Combs & Isaia Howard hit some key shots to keep the game in distance but the lack of Stirtz’s steady hand resulted in just a 24-point half.
Minnesota extended the lead to as much 14 points in the second half as Iowa ran into Big Ten officiating. 2 fouls were called 94 feet from Minnesota’s basket on rebounds as they went on a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 53-39. The fouls did swing back to Iowa, as their 8 of their next 10 points came from the charity stripe.
It was around that time Ben McCollum went to a four-guard lineup with Cooper Koch as the tallest Hawk on the court. Brendan Hausen got dusted off. With a 10-point deficit with just under 5:00 remaining, Iowa was able to get a 1-point lead off a Koch drive after back-to-back 3s from Bennett Stirtz & Hausen cut the deficit to 1. Up to that point, Iowa had been trading layups with single made free throws by Minnesota.
Unfortunately, Jaylen Crocker-Johnson hit Minnesota’s second 3 of the half on the ensuing possession to lead 66-64. After another pair of Gopher free throws (and two more misses), Stirtz hit a 3 to give Iowa a shot. Two more Gopher free throws to get it to 70-67 and Iowa whiffed on 3 straight attempts from deep and couldn’t tie it up.
Takeaways
- Though Stirtz eventually got it rolling for 21 points on 6/17 shooting, it was a slog to get there. He looked a bit out of sorts and playing through foul trouble didn’t help the cause as he could never seem engaged. He finished the first half with 0 points, as did Cam Manyawu, Alvaro Folgueiras, & Tavion Banks. Yikes.
- As mentioned above, Combs kept the game on the rails in the first half with 9 points on 4/5 shooting. He finished with 14 points. He had a key layup down the stretch on a set play & does provide some optimism about the future at point post-Stirtz.
- Howard also played with his tenacity and was much less efficient than it seemed in game, with 10 points on 5/13 shooting. He went 0/4 from deep but nobody covered themselves in glory there. The Hawks were just 7/26 from three (27%) and had some really ugly misses in the Barn. Minnesota was not especially good at 5/20.
- 26 of Minnesota’s 28 free throws came in the second half. They were in the double bonus the final 9:34. The misses down the stretch gave Iowa a shot but it was quite the disparity (Iowa went 10/13) despite both teams attacking the rim similarly. Minnesota was 11/17 around the rim while Iowa was 10/20.
- This team fights. Felt like it was time to pack it in and call it a day a few times throughout the second half but they seemed to always get off the mat.
Next up: 1/11 at 11a vs Illinois on FOX
