Ohio State 93, Iowa 77

Saturday's game between Iowa and Ohio State pitted two streaking teams -- they just happened to be streaking in opposite directions. Iowa had won four in a row entering the game in Columbus, while the Buckeyes had lost five straight. Those five consecutive defeats had come by a total of 19 points, though, as OSU just kept coming up on the short end in close games over the last three weeks. The Buckeyes' solution to that problem today? Don't play a close game. Ohio State used a 12-4 run out of halftime to open up a double-digit lead and never looked back, holding off any Iowa comeback attempts and cruising to an 93-77 win over Iowa on Saturday. Iowa fell to 12-7 overall and 4-4 in Big Ten action.

The game started out on a sloppy note, with six turnovers (three from each team) before any points were scored. Ohio State scored first, but Iowa went on a 11-3 run after that to open up an 11-5 lead. That was as good as it got for Iowa in this game, though. Ohio State eventually tied the game at 15, part of a 12-0 run that saw them go up 25-15. Iowa put together a few runs in the first half and cut the deficit to 2-3 points on a few occasions, but were unable to get any closer. Both teams went cold to end the half (3+ minutes without either team scoring), though that did help weather a 4+ minute absence from Kris Murray when he picked up his second foul and headed to the bench for the remainder of the half. Given the scoring droughts, Murray's absence, and nine (!) first half turnovers, going into halftime down just two points (37-35) didn't seem like a bad position to be in. Iowa just needed to clean a few things up for the second half.

Unfortunately, Iowa did not clean a few things up for the second half.

A made jump shot by Ahron Ulis tied the game at 37-37 just 15 seconds into the second half, but then the turnovers hit again (two giveaways in three possessions) and the shots stopped falling -- while Ohio State couldn't miss. The Buckeyes went on a 12-2 run to open up another double-digit lead four minutes into the half. Iowa did start making shots again -- but the Hawkeyes never got the stops needed on defense to actually make a dent in the Ohio State lead. The Buckeye lead stayed between 8-12 points for the remainder of the half, until they pushed it up to 16 points in the final few minutes of the game. Iowa scored 42 points in the second half -- and lost going away, because Ohio State scored 56 points after halftime and earned an easy 93-77 victory to end their losing streak.

Kris Murray was Iowa's most consistent player on offense today, finishing with 22 points on 9/19 shooting. He went 4/9 from 3-point range in the game; for a brief spell, his 3s were the only thing keeping the game close-ish. He also finished with team-highs in rebounds (7) and assists (4) today. Filip Rebraca finished with 15 points, including nine in the second half, but couldn't seem to find much of a rhythm against the Buckeye defense. Notably, he only had three rebounds in the game. Ahron Ulis was the only other Iowa player to score in double figures, with 12 points on 4/9 shooting. Tony Perkins and Connor McCaffery combined for 14 points, but neither could find any kind of shooting rhythm -- both finished 2/7 from the field. The Iowa bench was a big positive for Iowa during its four-game winning streak, but the reserves managed just 14 points on 5/11 shooting in this game. A full box score is available here.

Iowa is usually one of the best teams in the nation at not turning the ball over -- but you wouldn't know it from watching this game. Iowa finished with 14 turnovers and so many of them were the result of careless, sloppy play. Loose ball-handling. Bad passes. Rushed decisions. Ohio State recorded just 7 steals in the game; many of the turnovers were flat-out unforced. The turnover problem improved a bit in the second half after the early sloppiness -- Iowa had just five turnovers in the second half -- but a lot of damage had already been done. Ohio State took advantage of the Iowa turnovers (15 points off those 14 Iowa giveaways), but beyond that the turnovers also prevented Iowa from developing a rhythm on offense and left many possessions empty.

An even bigger issue for Iowa in this game than the turnover issues was the play on the defense in this game. Iowa didn't rotate well, didn't block out well, and didn't contest shots well... which resulted in a runaway Ohio State win once the Buckeyes' shots started falling. There were signs early on that Iowa's defensive effort wasn't what it needed to be -- the Buckeyes were getting a fair number of open shots, they just weren't falling. Then the shots started falling -- but Iowa's defense never really adjusted or improved.

Ohio State shot 56% from the field in the game and a scorching 65% in the second half. The Buckeyes scored 56 points in the second half; it's awfully hard to win games conceding 50+ points in a half. Ohio State didn't even need to do much damage from deep to get all those points, either -- good outside shooting in the first half (6/11) helped build a narrow lead, but the Buckeyes were only 2/5 from deep in the second half. Instead, they attacked the soft middle of Iowa's defense relentlessly, earning a 36-16 advantage in points in the paint in the second half (part of a 50-32 edge in the paint for the entire game). Overall, Ohio State scored 1.6 points per possession in the second half, which is an almost impossible number to overcome.

Iowa returns to the road to take on Michigan State on Thursday, January 26 (6 PM CT, FS1). The Spartans are 13-6 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten after beating Rutgers on Thursday night.