By Ian Murphy | [email protected]

Almost every seat in Carver-Hawkeye Arena had a butt in it. The speakers were a little louder. Even the band had a little extra pep to it.

But Senior Night didn’t pan out the way the Hawkeyes had planned, as Indiana beat Iowa, 81-78

“It sucks to lose,” senior Adam Woodbury said. “I don’t know what other way to put it. There’s no politically correct way. Just got to be better tomorrow and continue to get better.”

The loss pushes the Hawks’ losing streak to four games and comes at an inopportune time for the Hawkeyes.

It eliminates Iowa from the Big Ten regular-season title contention and gives Indiana the title outright. There were bright spots however, but the loss still stings for Woodbury and Company.

“It wouldn’t be hard to play better than we have been,” Woodbury said.

Despite losing five of their last six, the Hawkeyes started better than they have in the five games preceding this one.

The offense found a new and quick step in freshman Christian Williams, who finished with 8 points in a very effective 12 minutes.

But the Hawkeyes could not overcome the hot-shooting Hoosiers, who buried the Hawkeyes by shooting 60 percent from the field in the first half, 72.7 percent from 3.

They seemed to completely impose their will on the Hawkeyes, opening the second half with back-to-back baskets and steaming to a 14-point lead at 60-46 with 14:32 remaining.

Ferrell, every bit the all-conference player he’s made out to be, did a more than a little bit of everything while teammates Hartman and Williams sat after each picked up a fourth foul early in the second half.

In fact, the Hoosiers had more fouls than the Hawkeyes by a wide margin, 25-17, and still made the Hawkeyes pay on both ends of the floor with second-chance points. During one second-half stretch, Indiana missed six shots and had five offensive rebounds.

The result was a 14-7 advantage in second-chance points. Meanwhile, Peter Jok sat benched for a majority of the second half.

Amid all of this, however, the Hawkeyes kicked and screamed and clawed their way back to tie the game at 70 with 6:20 left.

Two 3-pointers by freshman Nicholas Baer tied the game, and the Hawkeyes traded leads with the Hoosiers until the 3:59 mark, when the Hawkeyes held a 75-74 advantage.

“I thought we showed some toughness, some grit we showed early in the season,” Uthoff said.

However, the old problem resurfaced. The Hawkeyes couldn’t make shots down the stretch.

“It happens; the best players in the world go through stretches like that.” Uthoff said.

Iowa was penniless from the field until the closing seconds of the game, when down 81-75, Clemmons hit a 3 with nine seconds left.

Williams forced a turnover on Indiana’s inbound, and the Hawkeyes got the ball back with six seconds. Clemmons air-balled a second 3-point attempt, but Woodbury snagged the rebound and called a time-out.

With 2.1 seconds left on  the inbound, Clemmons found a wide open Jok on the corner, but the shot fell short, as did the Hawkeyes hopes for a win on Senior Night, and a Big Ten title.

“Pete did a great job getting open. Sapp did a great job finding him. It just didn’t go,” head coach Fran McCaffery said.