IOWA CITY -- Looking for revenge after a 116-85 loss on the road in early January, Iowa (13-10, 4-8 Big Ten) came up short against Wisconsin (19-5, 9-4 Big Ten) at home on Saturday afternoon, falling by a score of 74-63. Between scoring just four points over the final 7:36, an injury to Drew Thelwell, and John Tonje looking like a steal out of the portal for the Badgers, the Hawkeyes posted their sixth loss in seven games.

Here are three takeaways from the defeat.

You read that headline right. After Thelwell hit a free throw to give Iowa a 59-58 lead with 7:36 on the clock, the Hawkeyes scored just four more points the rest of the way -- on a Payton Sandfort layup, and on two free throws by the injured Thelwell.

"We have to play a little bit better towards the end. I thought we got sped up today, and I didn't think we needed to," Fran McCaffery said after the loss. "I think that's the learning process with a new group. It was a two possession game, three possession game with four and five minutes to go. We were rushing, and we were fouling. We can't do that."

Sophomore forward Seydou Traore had a similar assessment.

"My feeling is we just settled in early in the shot clock," he said. "We should have went back to just moving the ball around and just playing our offense. I think we settled too quick."

Wisconsin did the opposite over the final stretch, putting up 16 points to outscore the Hawkeyes by 12.

"We had really good shots," Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. "Even though we missed the first couple threes of the half, I thought we had good looks. The ball moved. That's probably what you judge and analyze more than whether the ball goes in. ... That told me our willingness to compete at a higher level was better. Getting to the bonus was important, and we got some threes to go down to get separation."

McCaffery also pointed to the officiating, noting that his most veteran player wasn't getting a favorable whistle.

"I would say this -- with Payton, I think he deserves a little more respect," McCaffery said. "I think he's earned that."

Iowa previously targeted John Tonje out of the transfer portal when he left the Missouri basketball program last offseason. Safe to say they missed by not adding the 6'5" forward from Omaha.

Tonje led all scorers with 22 points, and killed Iowa from the free throw line -- where he went 9-of-10 as he got there routinely as a result of the officials showing him a lot of respect.

"He's hard to keep off the free throw line," McCaffery said. "Especially when he's shooting the ball the way he is. There was a stretch there where he wasn't shooting as well, but the last six games, he's on fire. So that is going to give him more space, and when he has space, he's really dangerous."

McCaffery wasn't wrong. After scoring zero points against USC on January 18, Tonje has scored 22 or more points in five of the Badgers' last six contests, averaging 23 points per game over that stretch. In Carver, all ten of his free throw attempts came in the second half.

"He's a big guard that can play in space, get downhill and he's such a threat from three," Gard said. "He picked his spots. ... I thought he was a little impatient in the first half. In the second half he was able to attack when the floor was a little more spread, and we were a little more balanced."

"He's a great player," Traore added, who was tasked with guarding Tonje for a good portion of the game. "He's a veteran guy. He knows his way around his offense, the way he plays."

Tonje is a talent that Iowa could have used out of the transfer portal, and the more the season goes on, the clearer it is that getting players like Tonje out of the transfer portal in the offseason are what separate programs like Wisconsin from Iowa.

"Our staff did an amazing job of putting together this roster -- how and who we were going to select in the transfer portal," Gard said. "We really intentionally built the roster, being deep at every position. ... We have a lot of talent, and a lot of chemistry with this group."

With 5:36 to go and the game still within reach, Thelwell attacked the basket early in an Iowa possession, going down hard and appearing to be in significant pain. He limped to the locker room, not putting any weight on his right leg.

Just several real time minutes later, Thelwell ran back to the bench and re-entered the game, exchanging minutes with Traore for the rest of the contest.

"I'm sort of amazed he came back in," McCaffery said. "I was right there right after it happened. He was in a lot of pain, and he's in a lot of pain right now. He really wanted to go back in, so we threw him in there. He got to the rim a couple times and made free throws."

As McCaffery has often done this season, he praised Thelwell for his desire to win and go into battle with his teammates.

"I think it says what we already knew he's a character guy," McCaffery said. "I've said that. As I try to categorize who he is for you guys, that dude has character. The only disappointment in it for me is I only get to coach him one year."

Thelwell did have an apparent limp when he was on the court, and it's unclear what further implications the injury will have going forward. McCaffery characterized it as a "lower leg" injury.

Thelwell's injury was just salt in the wound at the end of the game, as the Hawkeyes continue their Big Ten slump, losing their third game in a row and remaining winless in Quad One games.

The frustration is palpable with the players.

"I'm just sick of losing, so that's the mindset," Pryce Sandfort said following the game. "I want to fucking win, but we can't do it right now. Excuse my language."

The end result hasn't been the only thing on Pryce's mind. Despite being one of the better shooters on the roster (46.6% overall from the field and 39% from three-point range), the younger of the two Sandforts is shooting just 60.7% from the free throw line this season. Against the Badgers, he was 1-of-3 from the stripe.

"It's all mental," he said. "I can come in here, make 150 in a row, but it doesn't matter, I'm missing in the game. So, it's mental."

While the players shared their abundant anger and disappointment, McCaffery has remained relatively composed when speaking to the media -- even through the losses and one of the more trying seasons in the last decade of Iowa men's basketball.

"As long as [the team] keeps fighting for me and showing up for practice with an incredibly professional approach, that's all I ever ask of them," McCaffery said. "We're going to try to win. They want to win. They're putting the time in, and they're competing. It's our job to just try to help them get over the hump."

NEXT: Iowa will travel east to take on Rutgers (12-11, 5-7 Big Ten) on Wednesday at 5:30 pm CT. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.

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