EAST LANSING, Mich. – After rolling to a perfect 7-0 start, reality quickly set in for the Iowa men’s basketball team.

The Hawkeyes (7-1, 0-1), were never able to establish an offensive identity, and their lack of size in the interior doomed them against the talented No. 7 Michigan State Spartans (8-0, 1-0) on Tuesday evening in East Lansing, as the Spartans rolled to a 71-52 rout on their home floor.

Senior point guard Bennett Stirtz led Iowa with 14 points, but the Spartan defense flustered him throughout the contest, holding him to just 4 of 10 from the field, and Stirtz – who usually plays the entire game – was removed from the contest after the final media timeout.

“They punked us tonight, and we have to let it sting,” Stirtz said. “…. I know it’s a great learning experience for us, and gets us ready for Saturday [against Maryland].”

There were plenty of negative points to gravitate to, but the rebounding battle drastically favored Michigan State. The Spartans out-rebounded the Hawkeyes by 19 (37-18), something McCollum and Co. know needs to change moving forward.

“You can only withstand so much of the offensive rebounding pressure, the post pressure when you’re not scoring, and then it just kind of overwhelms you,” McCollum said.

“Obviously they were bigger than us, but for us to get out rebounded by that much, it’s probably a problem and we need to work on that,” Stirtz added.

Iowa shot just 37.8 percent from the floor and 30 percent from beyond the arc.

First Half 

This game was expected to be an old-school, Big Ten rock fight, and it did not disappoint. Both teams struggled offensively throughout the early portion of the first half, but that was due to the tenacious defense that was being played. Iowa did its part by forcing four Michigan State turnovers, but disjointed offense resulted in the Spartans taking an early 9-7 lead at the under-12 media timeout.

The Hawkeyes’ offensive problems continued. Michigan State was playing tough defense, but the lack of a perimeter shooting threat outside of Bennett Stirtz proved costly for Iowa. Stirtz’s three-pointer to open the game was the Hawkeyes’ only triple of the half until Cooper Koch buried one near the end of the half.

After racing out to a 5-0 lead, the Spartans went on a 25-6 run to seize control. Iowa went 5:43 minutes without scoring a field goal, and the raucous environment caused Stirtz to miss his first three attempts from the stripe.

The aforementioned Koch trey ended the long drought and gave the Hawkeyes a much-needed spark. Senior guard Brendan Hausen chipped in seven points off the bench, but the Spartans overwhelmed Iowa in the paint, scoring 16 points down low.

Fouls were also a major factor in the first half. The Hawkeyes were called for 12 fouls, while Michigan State recorded 11. Both head coaches were very displeased with the high volume of fouls, which slowed down the pace of play.

Nevertheless, the Spartans held a comfortable 35-21 advantage at the break. No Hawkeye reached double figures, and Hausen’s seven points were the team-high.

Second Half 

The second half was nearly a carbon copy of the first 20 minutes. Iowa’s offense improved marginally, but the story of this game continued to be the Hawkeyes’ poor interior defense. Michigan State’s gameplan was simple – find Coen Carr or Jaxon Kohler on the block, and exploit Iowa’s size disadvantage with a layup.

The Hawkeyes hung around enough to cut the lead down to 13, but the turning point came at the 13:28 mark. After the Spartans missed a jumper, sophomore forward Isaia Howard blew right past his man down the baseline, but missed the open layup. Michigan State quickly responded with a field goal on the other end, and its lead would soon blossom to 20.

After earning substantial playing time in the first half, Hausen didn’t play a single second in the entire second half, which McCollum admitted was a mistake.

“I think we needed more driving [to the paint] and we didn’t have enough driving,” McCollum said. “So we’re trying to get to the paint a little more consistently, but we couldn’t get him in the rotation like we wanted to. So again, we just have to do a better job next game.”

Iowa never got within striking distance after that, and the Spartans coasted to victory.

Up next 

The Hawkeyes are back in action on Saturday, Dec. 6 for their conference home opener against Maryland. The Terrapins currently sit at 5-3 on the season and have a matchup against Wagner later tonight.

Tipoff is set for 3:00 p.m. local time on FS1.