Michigan Takes Down Hawkeyes

Wolverines Pick up Road Win Against Iowa Thursday Night

The easiest shots were the hardest for Iowa at the worst moment.

The 84-79 loss to Michigan on Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena can be dissected from so many angles, but it was a run early in the second half caused by a collection of misses that made the Hawkeyes chase a deficit the rest of the night.

The game was tied at 50 when the Wolverines (14-10 overall, 8-6 Big Ten) went on a 7-0 run. It doesn’t seem like a lot of points, but in a game of constant back and forth, it provided just enough of an advantage.

There were the two missed free throws by Iowa’s Keegan Murray.

There was his open missed 3-pointer, followed up by a missed layup on a putback.

Patrick McCaffery missed an open 3-pointer.

And then another Murray miss inside, followed by his missed putback.

On a night when the Hawkeyes missed three dunks — Murray had two and McCaffery had one — and they missed seven free throws, it was a lot of points that faded into the Carver-Hawkeye air.

“At the end of the day, we missed a lot of bunnies around the rim that we normally make,” said Murray, who had 23 points despite being in the painful clamps of leg cramps that hobbled in the second half. “If you think about it, if we don’t miss those bunnies, we have a chance to win the game.”

“We’re not going to miss (three) dunks, typically,” Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. “And we’re not missing free throws like that.”

Still, the Hawkeyes (17-8, 7-7), who were down 12 with 3:25 to play, rallied and had a chance at the end to tie the game.

That, Fran McCaffery said, is something to take away.

“We missed some layups, we missed some free throws,” he said. “And yet we kept coming. So, I think as a coach, you’re going to be proud of that effort and concentration and execution against a really good team.”

Iowa had an 11-2 run that shook the Wolverines, and got to within 81-79 with six seconds left on Ahron Ulis’ layup. But DeVanté Jones made the second of two free throws to give Michigan a 3-point edge, and then Jordan Bohannon’s missed 3-pointer as the Wolverines were trying to foul him on Iowa’s final possession ended the comeback.

Someone asked Michigan’s Juwan Howard what his team did wrong in the final two minutes, but he wasn’t going to listen to that.

“You’re not giving Iowa’s enough credit,” Howard said. “Iowa’s tough, man. They’re relentless.”

Iowa’s scramble wasn’t just for points. Sometimes it was for combinations of players.

Murray crumpled twice to the court with cramps and had to be helped to the training room. Patrick McCaffery didn’t start the second half because of how sick he was at halftime, but he played almost 15 minutes. Kris Murray was plagued with foul trouble.

And the closing run from the Hawkeyes came from one lineup for defense and one for offense.

“I’m proud that so many guys who when we called on them to produce, produced,” Fran McCaffery said.

The Hawkeyes held Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson to 14 points, four below his season average, but Moussa Diabate had a career-high 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting.

“You can’t let him go 12 for 15,” McCaffery said. “He’s a pro, but you can’t let him go 12 for 15.”

Five Wolverines scored in double figures, and Michigan shot 50 percent for the game.

“I thought our defense needed to be better,” McCaffery said. “It was good at times. They have a lot of different guys who can both score and make a play.”

Patrick McCaffery had 13 points. Filip Rebraca had 12. Bohannon had 11.

The Hawkeyes get a quick turnaround, playing at Ohio State in a rescheduled game on Saturday.

“In the Big Ten, you’re going to lose games,” Murray said. “That’s just the nature of it. You’ve just got to get past it and move on.”