Iowa basketball: Hawks struggle defensively in loss to Purdue

The Iowa basketball team dropped their third consecutive Big Ten game in a disappointing loss to the Purdue Boilermakers in West Lafayette last night.

I won’t go as far to call this a must-win game, but the Iowa basketball team could have really used some positive momentum in the Big Ten after losing their first two games to Wisconsin and Michigan State.

Unfortunately, last night in Mackey Arena, it just wasn’t their night.

Purdue opened the contest by honoring cancer victim Tyler Trent with a tear-jerking video, moment of silent and an ovation. Sometimes, in sports, things are much bigger than the sports themselves and last night was one of those nights.

The Boilermakers put together arguably their most complete game of the season, driving to the basket more and spending less of their shots from being the three-point line, and it paid off well. Coming into this matchup, Purdue was 10th in the nation in their reliance on the three-point shot (41% of their points came from 3-point). Last night, however, three-pointers only accounted for 31% of their total points.

The strategy paid off, and it didn’t help that starting center Luka Garza was unable to compete in the contest due to an ankle injury despite warming up prior to the game. Purdue shot 53.2% from the field and built a 17-point lead in the first half. The cruise control went on in the second half and Purdue came away with an easy 16-point victory 86 – 70.

Offensively, the Iowa basketball team didn’t have a bad day as they shot 48% from the field, 35% from three-point, and 84% from the free-throw line. The biggest issue was that 86% of the production came from the starters. Only Ryan Kriener totaled any points from the bench, and he had ten. Connor McCaffery and Maishe Dailey added zero points on 0-5 shooting in 30 minutes.

Defensively, this team looked like a mess.

They forced just seven turnovers, and consistently allowed easy transition points and wide open looks for guards driving in the lane. Although I haven’t been the biggest fan of Garza’s defensive approach (most notably for his performance against Michigan State), it was quite evident the value he can bring to the side of the ball. Do-it-all forward Nicholas Baer filled in for the injured Garza and turned in a decent performance notching 6 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

If there is one solid takeaway from the defensive performance, it’s that the Iowa basketball team held Purdue’s two leading scorers to totals below their season average, but the scoring came from other spots as big men Matt Haams and Aaron Wheeler each turned in their second best scoring performance of the season tallying 14 and 10 points respectively.

This loss is tough for the Iowa basketball team, but they have an opportunity to finally get their first Big Ten win when they take on the #24 Nebraska Cornhuskers Sunday afternoon.