The Iowa men’s basketball team suffers its third loss in its last four games with a 84-71 road falling to No. 24 Wisconsin on Sunday. The Badgers’ offensive firepower caused several problems to a typically stout Hawkeye defense.
Bennett Stirtz’s 23 points was backed up by Alvaro Folguieras and Tate Sage’s 11 points apiece as well as Tavion Banks’ 10 points. Wisconsin saw four of its players hit double figures, led by Nick Boyd’s 27-point, 10-assist, nine-rebound near-triple-double.
“We had a great game plan going into the game,” Sage said. “I felt like we executed it pretty good, but obviously we didn’t execute it good enough. That’s a tough loss. We still got to figure out how to win the road.”
Wisconsin’s three-minute, 13-2 run to open the second half erased Iowa’s one-point first half lead. From that point on, the Badgers held a four-to-7 point lead through majority of the second half before it ran away to the 13-point victory.
“Our offense is built to score, and we can score in a variety of ways.” said Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard. “We were able to get to the free throw line and finish plays at the rim. And then the counter to that is when the rim isn’t open, somebody probably is on the perimeter.”
Both teams were highly efficient through the first 20 minutes of the game: over 53 percent from the field, over 40 percent from three, at least 14 made field goals, at least nine assists. Seven different Hawkeyes scored over that stretch, with five owning at least two made field goals, led by Stirtz’s 12 points. The Badgers’ duo of Boyd and Nolan Winter owned 29 of the team’s 40 first half points.
Those numbers dipped to 41 percent shooting from the floor and 13 percent from deep – just two makes out of 15 such attempts – in the second half for Iowa. One of those made threes was in the Hawkeyes’ very first possession with an open look from Stirtz. In addition to the struggles, the team didn’t sniff a free throw attempt after going 8-for-11 from the line in the first half.
“I thought the first half we executed a lot better, you know, got exactly what we wanted, and then the second half we just we stalled a lot,” said Iowa head coach McCollum. “We didn’t get to second actions. Didn’t pass as well as we did the first half, and then we didn’t get stops. And so you’re naturally playing in the half court, so much to where you can’t get a good rhythm there… And it’s just kind of snowballs on you.”
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The Hawkeyes return to Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a home matchup against Ohio State on Wednesday. The Buckeyes are coming off a three game stretch that saw it lose by four to then-No. 15 Virginia and six to No. 15 Michigan State, and sandwiched in between is a dominant 86-69 win over Wisconsin.
Iowa will have its hands full defensively with four Ohio State players averaging double-digit scoring.
“It’s just a reminder that playing well on offense [alone] is not going to win a Big Ten game, especially on the road,” Stirtz said. “So it’s a tough reminder, but we got to swallow it and get better for Ohio State.”