Iowa rallies to beat Nebraska-Omaha

IOWA CITY --It wasn't pretty, but often they never are in November.

Iowa (2-0) rallied from a seven-point second-half deficit to edge pesky Nebraska-Omaha 83-75 Sunday afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The battle hardly was expected -- Iowa was favored by 29 points -- but the Hawkeyes faced a diligent effort from the Mavericks (1-1).

Iowa trailed by five points with less than 10 minutes remaining when the Hawkeyes' Jarrod Uthoff and Aaron White each knocked down a pair of free throws to bring Iowa within one point. The Hawkeyes slapped a press on the Mavericks, and Devyn Marble stole a pass at midcourt. Marble passed to Anthony Clemmons, who laid it up to give Iowa its first lead since 14:07 left in the first half.

Nebraska-Omaha kept coming, however. C.J. Carter knocked down a jumper to retake the lead. Iowa took a three-point advantage on a White basket and a Uthoff free throw, but Carter again came on strong with a 3-pointer.

The Hawkeyes took the lead for good on its next possession. Clemmons drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with 5:54 left to move ahead 69-66. Uthoff scored a layup on the next possession to push Iowa ahead five. The spurt ignited a 9-2 run and put Iowa in control.

FIRST-HALF STORY

Iowa's first half lacked the excitement of a monotone arena advertisement during a television timeout.

Nebraska-Omaha (not Nebraska, not Omaha-based Creighton) leads a sleepwalking Iowa 43-36 at halftime this afternoon at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes shot only 35.7 percent from the floor in the first half and hit just 1-of-8 from 3-point range. UNO, conversely, was 5-of-9 from 3-point range.

Nebraska-Omaha pulled down nine offensive rebounds and scored on seven of those possessions. UNO scored 15 second-chance points and 16 points off Iowa's 12 turnovers.

Twice UNO buried a 3-pointer at the end of the shot clock. The Mavericks (1-0) pulled down 19 rebounds, three shy of the Hawkeyes (1-0).

Iowa's Devyn Marble was 0-for-6 from the floor, and hit 5-of-6 from the free-throw line but his miss was an airball. Aaron White leads the Hawkeyes with 10 points. Zach McCabe added six.

UNO's C.J. Carter leads all scorers with 13 points.