With a second straight dreadful performance at home the Iowa Hawkeyes have played their way out of title contention in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes made only three of 20 from three point range as Ohio State dominated the second half for a 76-69 win as the Buckeyes avenged a loss to the Hawkeyes in Columbus.
“Our starting lineup was not as effective at the start of the game, that was a little bit disappointing. Our bench really got us going,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says. He says they kept coming back, but couldn’t get a three point basket and that was frustrating.
The Hawkeyes led 33-31 at the half then allowed the Buckeyes to score 45 points in the second half. McCafferey says they shot 48-percent in the second half, but their defense was not good. McCaffery says they shot some of their three pointers to deep and that was part of the reason why they had so much trouble.
Mike Gessell led Iowa with 16 points and Gabe Olaseni added 14 as the Hawkeyes fall to 6-4 in the Big Ten and 17-6 overall.