Iowa goes cold from 3 in loss to Michigan

Just one night after catching fire from beyond the arc, the Hawkeyes went 1-of-16 from deep, leading to their elimination from the Big Ten Tournament.

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Lily Smith

Iowa forward Luka Garza attempts a shot over Michigan forward Ignas Bradzeikis during the Iowa/Michigan Big Ten Tournament men’s basketball game in the United Center in Chicago on Friday, March 15, 2019. The Wolverines lead the Hawkeyes, 40-27, at the half.

Pete Ruden, Sports Editor

CHICAGO – Iowa couldn’t miss from behind the 3-point line in its 83-62 win over Illinois in its first game of the Big Ten Tournament. Its 12-of-23 mark from deep was enough to send the Illini back to Champaign and extend its stay in Chicago.

Friday was different, however. Less than 24 hours later, the Hawkeyes went 1-of-16 from 3-point range in a 74-53 loss to Michigan on the same court they shot so well on before.

What a difference a day makes.

“Just one of those nights,” point guard Jordan Bohannon said. “I don’t think we were that tired. I thought we were pretty ready for the game. We got open shots, it was just one of those nights where things weren’t falling.”

The loss was a tale of two teams, really. While the Hawkeyes couldn’t buy a bucket from beyond the arc, the Wolverines seemed like they couldn’t miss early on.

Michigan finished the game with 10 3-pointers, hitting its first less than three minutes after tip-off. The Wolverines used incredible ball movement to tear Iowa’s first-half zone apart. Michigan hit 7 of its 3s in the first 20 minutes.

Four Wolverines hit at least two shots from beyond the arc by the time the Hawkeyes knocked down their first 3-ball on a Nico Hobbs bank with 1:08 remaining in the game. Michigan drained 10 3-pointers before Iowa hit one.

“Obviously, we played really well [Thursday], we were locked in defensively, and shots were falling for us, but [Friday] that wasn’t the case,” forward Joe Wieskamp said. “But we can’t let our offense affect our defense. We’ve still got to stick to our principles and stay locked in on that end.”

Iowa’s inability to knock down shots from deep forced it to go inside where it feasted in its first meeting with Michigan.

After getting outscored in the paint 40-20 in the first meeting, Michigan stepped up by holding Iowa’s advantage to 34-32.

Luka Garza and Tyler Cook were two of Iowa’s only bright spots offensively, each scoring 14.

Iowa’s shooters, though, couldn’t get anything to fall. Wieskamp’s first field goal didn’t come until the 7:56 mark in the second half. Bohannon and Nicholas Baer ended the game without scoring.

Isaiah Moss was the only shooter to get on the scoreboard consistently early, scoring 8, doing most of his work from the free-throw line and inside.

“What’s crazy about it, I thought we came out of the gate pretty good,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “We wanted to establish we were going to go inside, and we did a really good job with Garza and Cook early. We couldn’t get anything to fall from the perimeter and we’re at our best when we’re mixing our post feeds, and our post-ups, and our ability to make some 3s.”

Now, the Hawkeyes will have a chance to bounce back in the NCAA Tournament. Iowa snapped a four-game losing streak with its win over Illinois on Thursday, but now it’s about coming back strong with a clean slate.”

“I think it’s capable of us bouncing back and going through some more adversity to try to figure out who we are as a team,” Bohannon said. “I thought we’ve done a good job of that when we’ve hit adversity to figure out who our identity is as a team. We started 0-3 in conference and it could have been very easy for us to go back to what we were doing last year, but we didn’t do that.”