Game Story: Indiana Loses Big Lead, Falls to Iowa 91-89 in Painful Fashion
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IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mike Woodson was angry, and with good reason. His Indiana team had just lost 91-89 to Iowa at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, blowing a 21-point first-half lead, losing forward Race Thompson to a knee injury and letting another late lead slip away in the final minutes.
And in a one-possession game, an early iffy Indiana technical on Indiana's Jordan Geronimo and a late technical on Iowa coach Fran McCaffery that was reversed had Woodson in a tizzy. There is no love lost between these two coaching staffs, and Woodson made that clear in his postgame press conference.
He was irate that McCaffery was allowed to walk all the way down to the Indiana huddle, engage in a shouting match with Indiana assistant Yasir Rosemond and get a technical foul from referee Courtney Green, only to have his call reversed.
"I'm not even going to comment on that because that's bullshit,'' Woodson said. "That's what it is. And you can print that. Because when you allow coaches to come across half court into your space that's bullshit. It is.
"He did call the tech and he pulled it back, which is bullshit. The guy should have been thrown out of the god damn game.''
This was an especially tough loss for Indiana, a team that's 10-4 overall now and just 1-2 in the Big Ten. They've been a slow-starting team in several games this year, but Thursday night they were firing on all cylinders out of the gate, roaring out to a 28-7 lead in the first six-plus minutes.
Iowa was kept in check because senior forward Race Thompson was doing a great job defensively on Iowa star Kris Murray, who had only two points in the first 12 minutes. But later in the first half, an Iowa player dove into his knee while chasing a loose ball. Thompson's knee bent at an awkward angle and he had to be helped to the locker room by two teammates. His night was done, and he returned to the bench on crutches later in the second half.
"Well it's tough because I thought he had his legs taken out from under him,'' Woodson said. "No call. It's a bad play, it really is.''
Murray would pick apart Indiana defenders the rest of the way, especially Jordan Geronimo, who couldn't keep up. Murray finished with 30 points, including 21 in the second half when Iowa would take the lead.
Indiana senior Trayce Jackson-Davis matched his high level of play, scoring 30 points himself and playing through pain of a back injury. He played 38 minutes and 18 seconds, and all of the second half. He made 11-of-20 field goals and 8-of-10 free throws, though both misses came late in the game when points were really at a premium.
It was a frustrating night for him, dealing with his own pain level, losing his best friend Thompson to an injury and letting another potential road win slip away.
"Injuries happen in basketball, and sometimes you've just got to play through those things,'' Jackson-Davis said. "I thought we executed (the game plan) well, but at the end of the game we got a little sloppy and picked up fouls. We've just got to be better in the last four minutes of the game, because we can't have things transpire like they did last year when we started losing ones close over and over.
"X and Race are both my guys, and to see that disappoints me, disappoints me a lot. I pray for the best and I hope he's OK, but I think it's horrible and I'm not going to lie to you.''
The loss also spoiled a brilliant night from freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino, who played 37-plus minutes with Xavier Johnson out for at least a month with a foot injury. He scored a career-high 21 points and 5-of-8 three-pointers and also had nine assists. He and Jackson-Davis we re the only two Hoosiers in double figures.
Indiana led by 20 points (35-15) at the 9:43 mark of the first half, but then Iowa made the first of many runs. They scored 11 straight points, and then went on a 10-2 run near the end of the half to cut the lead to five. Indiana went to the locker room with a 10-point lead after Jacksion-Davis scored on a three-point play with 48 seconds to go and Geronimo scored after an offensive rebound with 10 seconds left.
Early in the second half, Iowa went on another run to cut the Indiana lead to 57-56. They finally tied the game 61-all on a Kris Murray three, and went ahead on the next possession with center Filip Rebraca, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds, scored on a layup.
The game went back and forth and Iowa had a 76-72 lead with 7:33 to go. But then Indiana went on a run of its own, scoring eight straight points to go ahead 80-76. Hood-Schifino scored on a layup with 3:42 to go, putting Indiana ahead 84-78.
But it all went downhill from there. Iowa had a 9-0 run to grab the lead, and wouldn't let go. They made 11-of-12 free throws down the stretch and Indiana couldn't get over the hump. Trailing by three in the final seconds. Trey Galloway was fouled and made the first free throw, He tried to miss the second one intentionally, but misfired and didn't hit the rim.
The Hoosiers are back at home on Sunday, taking on Northwestern at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at Noon ET.
They'll likely be without Thompson, and bench guys Geronimo, Malik Reneau and maybe even Logan Duncomb are going to have to step up. Woodson didn't know the extent of Thompson's injury, but it didn't look good.
"I thought Geronimo fought (defensively), but Race is a better matchup on Murray and we knew that coming in,'' Woodson said. "But we just didn't play like we played in the first half. Our defense, it just went the other way.
"And Murray had his way. He was a big part of that. I think he had 21 points in the second half and that's huge when you are trying to win a close game. We didn't hit our free throws either (17 of 26, for 65.4 percent) and that's kind of been a thorn in our side. We have to make free throws. They made theirs (22 of 25 for 88 percent) and we missed ours."
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