STATE COLLEGE -- Iowa suffered yet another close loss despite holding a late-game lead, falling to Penn State on the road Thursday night, 89-79.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
Too Many Turnovers
Iowa averages just under ten turnovers per game, at 9.8. Against the Nittany Lions they gave up 18, a season high. Penn State executed their well-known full-court press to a high level against the Hawkeyes.
"In that full-court press they're definitely very active with their hands," Ben Krikke said postgame. "They fly around with their feet. They're very good at anticipating passes and reading the guards eyes for skip passes down the court. We give credit to them, but at the same time, we worked on that for 2-3 days and saw a ton of film on it. I thought coming in that we would be ready for it. When push came to shove, we weren't."
The Hawkeyes finished the first half with ten turnovers, but were able to stay within single digits at halftime, trailing 42-34. Nine first half turnovers by PSU helped keep Iowa close.
Though things improved in the second half in the turnover department, they didn't get much better. Iowa turned the ball over eight times to Penn State's four.
"You can't turn it over 18 times," Fran McCaffery added. "But our defense was not what it needed to be."
"We weren't tough enough at either end, and that's disappointing. We were really good at times, and we had individuals who were really good at times and that's encouraging. But we have to be tougher, especially on the road."
Krikke Back to Scoring, But Not Enough
Krikke scored 22 points in the loss after being unable to score 20+ points since putting up 25 against Minnesota on January 15.
"It felt like the last four games or so I just haven't really been myself," Krikke said. "I'm happy to get my confidence back a little bit tonight. Obviously would've loved to come out with a win. That's the most frustrating part for me and my team right now."
"Ben was really aggressive tonight, and that's what we need him to be," McCaffery said. "We went to him, and he answered the bell, so I'm really proud of him."
Krikke's 22 points weren't enough to get Iowa a win, but the loss resulted from a variety of factors. For one, Owen Freeman once again got into first-half foul trouble, only playing eight of the first 20 minutes.
"He's working on it," McCaffery said. "We talk to him, we show it to him on film, we work on his positioning. We tell him to be less handsy, pushing, grabbing and making sure he's talling up. He's also working to get that first rebound so they don't have those extra couple times to shoot. I think he'll get there. He's really trying and really wants it."
Additionally, despite a hot streak of games lately, Tony Perkins was held to just 11 points and Payton Sandfort contributed only eight on the evening. Though Perkins added eight assists, the Hawkeyes need more from their two top scorers if they're to compete on a night-in and night-out basis.
Losing Winnable Games
Yet again, Iowa suffered a loss despite taking a second-half lead after trailing by double digits late in the first half. With 3:20 left in the game, Krikke made a layup to cut the lead to just one for the Nittany Lions.
"Those guys made big time plays down the stretch," Krikke said. "We've got to find ways when we're up seven or whatever it is to close that out. In the first half we were up 17-10 and then, in the blink of an eye it was a tie game and then we found ourselves down. We've got to find a way to get stops. Coach said they scored 12 of the last 13 possessions of the game, and that's just unacceptable."
"We've got to find ways to close it out and play smarter ball."
"We need to be tougher defensively," McCaffery added. "Especially when we go up seven. That's one thing that really disappointed me. Our execution was just okay, but they scrambled us a little bit so we just had to go make plays. When it's an up-tempo, fast game with teams pressing and running, there's going to be some turnovers, but we probably had 3-4 that we shouldn't have had, maybe five."
"We should've been able to move the ball and at least get a shot opportunity. So, we'll learn from it."
Up next, the Hawkeyes (13-10, 5-7 Big Ten) will take on Minnesota (15-7, 6-5) at 2 PM CT on Sunday in Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Big Ten Network.
