The Iowa Hawkeyes (19-8, 9-7) couldn’t contain Nick Boyd en route to an 84-71 loss at Wisconsin (18-8, 11-5). The Badger guard came up a rebound short of a triple double at 27 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds. Bennett Stirtz led the Hawks with 23 points on 9/16 shooting.
Throughout the first half, it felt like Iowa was playing too well to have the gap stay as close as it was. They went up 9 quickly off an 8/11 start from the field but went through a 6-minute field goal-less stretch which included
3+ minutes without a point. Tate Sage came off the bench for 6 straight points to cap a 9-2 bounce back and regain the lead at 28-24.
Sage’s 7 points supplemented Stirtz getting 12 points on 4/7 shooting in the frame. But the story throughout the first half was Iowa’s inability to get stops as they went into half up 41-40. Boyd had 15 first half points and forward Nolan Winter scored 14 on 6/7 shooting.
After holding Wisconsin’s #2 scorer, John Blackwell, without a point in the first half, he hit a 3 to put the Badgers up 47-44. It was part of an 11-0 run which gave Wisconsin a 51-44 lead with 16:34 remaining in the game.
Iowa was able to maintain contact with Tavion Banks and Alvaro Folgueiras closing the gap to 53-49. Sage returned to hit a couple layups.
The Hawks seemed poised to make a run after Stirtz hid a midrange jumper, got a steal, and made a layup to close the gap to 64-61. But the Hawks couldn’t corral the rebound off a Blackwell miss. Boyd found Winter on a backlit for an and-one dunk, which gave them a 67-61 lead coming out of the under-8:00 timeout.
Though Iowa kept the deficit between 3-6, they never gave themselves a chance to tie it up. Austen Rapp hit 2 of his 4 threes on the day during a 10-0 run which put the game out of reach at 78-65 with 3:57.
Iowa was able to get some stops but couldn’t string any baskets together, with only 3 makes the rest of the way. aThe game got chippy as Isaia Howard fouled Blackwell after the Badger initiated contact as he crossed half court with just over a minute remaining. Howard shoved Blackwell, which resulted in 4 free throws for the Badgers which slammed the door shut on Iowa’s remote chances of the comeback.
The weirdness continued after the game, Greg Gard appeared to be engaging Ben McCollum at half court as McCollum was heading towards the locker room.
It’s easy to point to the foul disparity in the second half or Wisconsin outshooting Iowa from the stripe 15-0 during the frame but Iowa fell too in love with the 3, making just 2/16 in the 2nd. As for the defense, when the Hawks are not turning teams over – Wisconsin had just 4 on the day – the defense quickly regresses in a way where Iowa’s offense cannot keep pace.
The Hawks return to Carver on Wednesday, 2/25, to face the Ohio State Buckeyes. Both teams are 9-7 in conference play.
