Iowa men post lowest scoring output since 1949

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Iowa basketball's roller-coaster week crashed with the sound of bricks last night at Mackey Arena.

The Hawkeyes (9-17, 3-10 Big Ten) shot just 29.8 percent from the floor and had multiple stretches of offensive futility in a 63-40 loss at No. 6 Purdue.

Iowa's shooting percentage was its second worst this season, and the Hawkeyes tied a season low for points in a half with 15. It was the first time since Jan. 10, 1949 Iowa had scored 40 or fewer points in a game.

“Tonight it just wasn't to be,” Iowa Coach Todd Lickliter said. “There wasn't a whole lot we could do.”

Iowa virtually wrapped up its third straight losing season for only the second time in school history with a 63-40 loss at Purdue last night. The Hawkeyes have five regular-season games left plus at least one more at the Big Ten Tournament. Iowa last had three straight losing seasons from 1930-32.

Perhaps more glaring than the history was Iowa's offensive struggles. Iowa trailed Purdue 16-12 with 12 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half. The rest of the half became blurry in a turnover-filled haze of offensive ineptitude.

Iowa scored just one basket - a Cully Payne 3-pointer - until halftime, spanning 20 possessions. Iowa had eight turnovers and missed 14 of their next 15 shots over that span. Iowa failed to score on its final 12 possessions of the half.

“We started to turn the ball over,” Iowa guard Eric May said. “It's difficult to get buckets when you shoot 10 times less. So along with that, they were playing solid defense where it's hard to get open looks at all. So it's a combination of those two things.”

“We were stuck on 15 points there for a while, and it's what kills us when we get in those slumps,” Iowa guard Matt Gatens said. “We were working so hard on defense, and we're not scoring buckets on offense. It really makes it tough, and that's the story of the game.”

Purdue (21-3, 9-3) attacked Iowa along the perimeter and was physical with Gatens and point guard Cully Payne. Purdue senior Chris Kramer locked down Gatens, holding him to a season-low three points.

No Iowa player stepped up offensively. Payne scored 11 points, and Jarryd Cole added 10, but Cole fouled out with 13:16 left in the game.

“We knew that (Purdue attacking Iowa's perimeter) was going to happen, but all you can try to do is (set) on-ball (screens) high with their five and your perimeters have to be able to make plays and space the floor,” Lickliter said. “You don't have a lot of other choices. Trying to run your sets is hard. They just run you out of everything.”

Iowa had two other second-half stretches of eight and nine possessions, respectively, where it failed to score.

The game ended a long week for Iowa, which had three games in seven days, book ended with Big Ten powers Ohio State and Purdue. Plus, Anthony Tucker, who leads the team in scoring at 11.9 points a game, was released from his scholarship on Friday.

“We've got to stick together and keep playing hard,” Gatens said. “It has been a tough week.”