Hopes for a fresh, recharged start to the new year for Iowa basketball seemingly died as quickly as most New Year’s resolutions.
The Hawkeyes came into Sunday’s game at Penn State reeling badly, on the heels of an embarrassing home loss to Eastern Illinois and an ice-cold-shooting performance at Nebraska. The urgency that coach Fran McCaffery’s team needed didn’t show up in the first half, and the Hawkeyes found themselves digging out of an 18-point halftime hole at the Bryce Jordan Center.
But a second-half awakening brought the Hawkeyes back. Kris Murray scored 22 of his career-high 32 points after halftime, but the Hawkeyes came up excruciatingly short in a 83-79 loss and are now in a big hole in the Big Ten Conference.
Tony Perkins’ 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:27 to go chopped Penn State’s 18-point halftime lead to 79-75. A Murray follow-up from his own miss made it 79-77. After two Jalen Pickett free throws, Murray scored again with 16 seconds left to keep the Penn State lead at 81-79.
After Andrew Funk missed the front end of a one-and-one, Iowa had a chance to tie. But as he drove in the lane, Perkins had the ball stolen with 5 seconds left by Seth Lundy, one of the Big Ten’s best defenders. Lundy canned both free throws, and that was that.
Iowa dropped to 8-6 overall and 0-3 in Big Ten play with even tougher games ahead − home Thursday against Indiana and Sunday at Rutgers. After a 6-1 start, Iowa has gone 2-5 since the calendar turned to December, a 19-point home win against Iowa State being the anomaly.
Penn State hit nine of its first 12 shots, as Iowa’s defense gave up too many easy looks. Meantime, the poor shooting that crippled Iowa in the 66-50 loss at Nebraska (an inexplicable 19-for-73) continued with a 10-for-31 first half. Penn State’s 44-26 halftime lead was perfectly encapsulated by the banked-in 3-pointer from Funk as the shot clock was expiring.
While Iowa’s slide continued, the Nittany Lions (11-3, 2-1 Big Ten) might be pretty good. They have a bona fide star in Pickett, who is playing at an all-conference level. The transfer from Siena scored 26 points with seven rebounds and six assists. They’ve already gone on the road and beaten Illinois, with their only losses coming to Virginia Tech by two, Clemson in double overtime and Michigan State.
Iowa got 17 points and seven rebounds from Perkins, and Filip Rebraca added 13 points. The Hawkeyes scored 53 second-half points, the jolt their offense desperately needed. In their previous four halves, they had been outscored, 165-114, and were shooting 40-for-140 from the floor (28.6%), including 10-for-53 (18.9%) from 3-point range.
At least there were signs of life from the Hawkeyes in the final 20 minutes. Maybe that can be something to build on as they come home for four of their next five games.
