Creighton 92, Iowa 84: Blue Jays Hold Off Late Hawkeye Run

OMAHA -- Iowa faced its first big test of the season on Tuesday night and came up just short against No. 8 Creighton in a non-conference matchup in CHI Health Center, 92-84.

Here are three takeaways from the early-season loss for the Hawkeyes.

Over the first two games of the season, Valparaiso transfer Ben Krikke looked like a more traditional center. Though the skilled big showed flashes of an expanded repertoire of skills, the 6'9" center scored the majority of his points around the rim for the Hawks in his first two games in Iowa City. .

Against Creighton, he saw an opportunity to do damage from further away, and seized it. Krikke drilled eight mid-range jumpers for 16 of his 24 points on the evening.

"We felt like we could get him in that mid-range area, get him on the move and isolate him for drives," Fran McCaffery said postgame. "Ben is really good at attacking the basket off the bounce and his mid-range game is as good as anyone I've ever seen."

"The mid-range was going," added. "I was comfortable with that."

In the early going of the second half, Krikke's contributions from just inside the three-point line were the lone thing that kept Iowa within reasonable distance of the Blue Jays.

He finished 11-18 from the floor with five rebounds over 31 minutes.

In the first half, these two teams looked near-identical. Each team made 17 shots, made over 42 percent of their field goals from the floor, had 18 and 19 rebounds respectively, and entered the half tied, 43-43.

The start of the second half opened things up for the Blue Jays. Over the first four minutes of the second frame, Creighton outscored Iowa 18-6.

"We just kind of lost attention to detail," Krikke said. "We didn't come out and stick to the game plan like we did in the first half. We took a couple punches early and didn't punch back. We knew that they were a good shooting team, and they hit the open ones."

"We weren't hitting as much as we were in the first half, and we weren't getting to the offensive glass," McCaffery added. "If you're going to play this team, you've got to be five as one on defense. You've got to communicate on your switching, you have multiple responsibilities beyond guarding your own man. That's what makes this team hard to play against."

Creighton backup center Frederick King gave Krikke fits under the basket and Payton Sandfort missed a good chunk of the second half after a hard fall.

"He was good," Krikke said of King. "We knew coming into the game that he would be a spark [off their bench]. He came in and got some offensive boards, so credit to him. He played well tonight. I should've done a little better to stop that."

"I was worried about him when he went down," McCaffery said regarding Sandfort. "I was very close to not putting him back in at all, but they took him in the back, had him go through a battery of tests and said he was fine. He was dying to get back in there."

In Sandfort's absence, the Creighton lead swelled to 17, and the game looked like it may get out of hand.

Then the bench unit of Owen Freeman, Pryce Sandfort, Brock Harding, Ladji Dembele and Josh Dix came in. The group stayed engaged despite the deficit and -- with some help from the starters -- went on a 21-9 run from 9:17 to 1:19 remaining.

At that peak of the run, the Hawkeyes got the game within five points, 89-84.

Unfortunately, in the remaining time left, Iowa was unable to convert on three attempts from the field -- including a three-point shot by Payton Sandfort where he believed he was fouled -- along with three free throws, and the Blue Jays walked away with the eight-point victory.

Though the result isn't what the Hawkeyes wanted, the group exceeded expectations against a top ten team in the country.

Iowa hung tough with one of the best shooting teams in the country, nearly tied the game despite a 17-point second-half deficit, turned the ball over just once in the second half, and the freshman got plenty of valuable minutes in a raucous environment.

"No question this team grew tonight," McCaffery said. "You learn from the good things you do, you learn from the mistakes you make. Things are different on the road. All the sudden maybe you don't get a call. That was a physical, aggressive game. Officiating had nothing to do with it. What we've got to do it play through it, continue to compete and be accountable for what we could've done and didn't do."

"We're going to take this game and learn from it, move on and win some games," Krikke added. "We've got to find ways to take care of the ball and continue to share it."

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