Ohio State 90, Iowa 78: Must-Win Turns Into Ho-Hum
MINNEAPOLIS -- In a fitting end to a regular season plagued with inconsistency, Iowa's must-win game turned into another early deficit and disappointing finish. Iowa lost 90-78 Friday, which dropped the Hawkeyes to 18-14 on the season and effectively eliminated them from NCAA Tournament consideration.
Ohio State never trailed in the contest, scoring the first bucket of the game and using an early 10-2 run to set a pace that Iowa spent the rest of the game trying in vain to catch. Iowa couldn't get stops in the first half, especially on the perimeter as Ohio State shot a blistering 8-of-11 from behind the arc, and couldn't get shots to fall in the second half, shooting just 33% from the floor (and 25% from deep).
Iowa's slow start against the Buckeyes was an unfortunate echo to Sunday's icy start against the Illini, which featured Iowa falling into an early 22-4 hole.
The Hawkeyes didn't dig themselves quite that calamitous deficit this time -- in fact, after falling behind 10-2, Iowa had the game tied back up at 15-all by the under-12 timeout of the first half, fueled mainly by nine points and an assist by Payton Sandfort.
Thereafter, though, the Buckeyes responded with another 10-2 run of their own, which was the story of the game: every time Iowa made a run on offense, Ohio State hit back harder.
READ MORE: Ohio State 90, Iowa 78: NIT Incoming
As someone who covered the Iowa women's basketball games in Minneapolis last weekend and the men's games this weekend, I can attest that no one is going to confuse tonight's atmosphere with last week's "Carver North."
In stark contrast to the black and gold bedlam that descended on the Twin Cities last weekend, Thursday's crowd was nowhere close to a sellout and featured mixed representation from multiple schools -- unlike the 90% Iowa representation at last weekend's games.
Still, there was a healthy contingent of Iowa fans in attendance, ever eager to let loose the black-and-gold fervor that typified last week's BTT run for the Iowa women.
Unfortunately, with the Hawkeyes playing catch-up the whole way and unable to string a rally together, there were precious few opportunities to sustain any crowd energy.
After that 15-15 deadlock and subsequent Ohio State run, Iowa wasn't able to get any closer than three points in the first half and trailed 43-38 at halftime.
A 7-2 Iowa run that featured a pair of Ben Krikke buckets sandwiched around a transition three-pointer from Payton Sandfort cut the Ohio State lead to three again at 51-48 early in the second half.
That felt like a potential tipping point for Iowa, but as was the case all game, the Hawkeyes were unable to find the push they needed. That Krikke basket and Sandfort three-pointer, as it turned out, would be the only time Iowa scored more than four straight points after halftime.
With Iowa unable to sustain anything resembling a run, Ohio State quickly rebuilt its lead, and kept its margin above seven points for the last 13:50 of the game. But it wasn't a case of the Buckeyes keeping their hot shooting going for all 40 minutes.
Both teams cooled off in the second half, especially from deep; Ohio State went 8-of-11 from behind the arc before the break and just 3-of-11 in the second half, while Iowa followed a 5-of-9 first half effort with a 3-of-12 second half display.
Even with Ohio State's field-goal shooting cooling off after halftime from 61% to 44%, Iowa simply couldn't keep the Buckeyes off the offensive glass; the Buckeyes turned six offensive boards into a whopping 14 second-chance points. That inability to string stops together doomed Iowa's hopes of getting the game back within striking distance in the second half.
"That kind of kept happening, we got a few stops, there was that one possession the ball was bouncing all over, I thought we had a layup, then they got a layup, just one of those things," said Patrick McCaffery after the game. "There were some offensive rebounds (for Ohio State) where we forced misses, then they'd get it back and score right away."
Iowa's beleaguered defense also struggled to keep the Buckeyes off the free throw line; OSU drew 16 second-half fouls and shot 16-of-22 from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, Iowa couldn't take the same advantage of the Big Ten's signature Second-Half Ref Show™, going just 13-of-19 after the break.
"We missed a lot of free throws, but we have some pretty good free throw shooters, we're a pretty good free throw shooting team, so that's disappointing," noted McCaffery. "Overall, we make our free throws; today they just didn't go."
Other Iowa players echoed the theme of missed opportunities in the second half. "We had some opportunities there, and we weren't able to get over that hump," said Owen Freeman. "We wouldn't get it done, couldn't get over that hump," Krikke said of the second half struggles.
Sadly, digging itself into a hole and being unable to get over the hump is Iowa's 2023-24 season in microcosm.
This team went 10-10 in Big Ten play — no small feat, with a roster this young — but still never found itself projected as anything more than a fringe bubble team because of its inability to get notable non-conference wins or take advantage of a softened midsection of the Big Ten.
Iowa started the season 0-3 in Big Ten play, including a dreadful loss to Michigan in the Hawkeyes' Big Ten home opener; the Wolverines finished the season 3-17 in conference play. Iowa also dropped a home game to Maryland (tied for second-worst in the Big Ten) and was unable to finish road wins at Indiana, Penn State, Maryland, or Illinois, despite holding second-half leads in all four games.
A few more offensive rebounds, a few more three-pointers, a few more free throws, a few more defensive stops could have put Iowa in a position to beat Ohio State. The refrain is all too familiar.
There's a fitting -- and frustrating -- symmetry between the listless second half of Thursday's loss and so many Hawkeye defeats this season. As the season nears its end with (almost certainly) only an NIT banner to play for, Fran McCaffery's last task of the season is to get a better closing stretch out of his players than they were able to muster Thursday, or all year.