Slow start dooms Iowa men once again

IOWA CITY - After a putrid start in a 23-point loss at Purdue last Sunday, Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery emphasized the need for his team to immediately get into a groove against Northwestern.

Well, that didn't work out so good.

Northwestern built a 27-point first-half lead with help from a 3-point barrage in a 90-71 win over Iowa last night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. It was Northwestern's highest-scoring game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“From our standpoint the disappointing thing is we had a very poor performance Sunday and obviously we came in here to try to rectify some of the mistakes that we made,” McCaffery said. “Early on, we weren't able to do that. We fell behind, and I thought our defense in the first 10 to 15 minutes was not good at all.

“Overall, I'm very disappointed in our effort, concentration and execution.”

The Wildcats (11-4, 2-3 Big Ten) drilled 10 of their first 16 3-point attempts in the first half. After Iowa (7-9, 0-4) took a quick 4-0 lead, Northwestern outscored the Hawkeyes 33-7 over the next 8:16. Northwestern's first seven baskets were 3-pointers.

In fact, Northwestern's 10 3-point baskets were one better than Iowa's entire field-goal output (nine) and equal to Iowa's turnover total in the first half.

“That's the disconcerting thing for us,” McCaffery said. “It happened in the South Dakota State game. It happened in the Iowa State game. It happened Sunday. It happened tonight. ... I don't know that I have an explanation other than we talked about it.

“Certainly (Northwestern is) the top 3-point shooting team in our league. It's a top-10 3-point shooting team in the country. They get a lot of points from the 3-point line.”

It's not like Iowa had no idea about the Wildcats' perimeter prowess. Northwestern ranks 12th nationally in 3-pointers per game and sinks 39.4 of their long-range shots. Junior John Shurna entered the game second nationally in 3-point percentage (58 percent), hitting 40-of-69 3-point attempts.

Northwestern finished the game hitting 14-of-28 3-point shots and sank 53.2 percent of their shots from the floor. Drew Crawford hit five 3-pointers for 19 points, while Michael Thompson scored 17 with three 3-pointers.

“They're not an easy team to guard, I think everybody will recognize that,” McCaffery said. “But at some point after Crawford's made one or two, can we get a little closer to him? Those are the things that seem to be simple and for whatever reason, we're having a hard time with them. We'll just keeping working at it.”

“Tonight was one of those nights where we were knocking them down,” Northwestern Coach Bill Carmody said.

Iowa did post a mini-run early in the second half to cut its deficit to 15. The Hawkeyes scored on four consecutive possessions, starting with a 3-pointer from Matt Gatens. Cartwright followed with a pair of free throws and a jumper, and Gatens finished with a bucket and free throw. But Northwestern rallied with an 11-2 run to push its lead back to 24.

Guard Bryce Cartwright rallied after a poor performance at Purdue with a career-high 25 points and five assists. Cartwright hit 9-of-16 from the field. Junior guard Matt Gatens scored 20 points and hit five 3-pointers.

The performance was Iowa's second straight sluggish start to a game. Iowa senior Jarryd Cole said the team "came out flat."

"Our effort wasn't there, and that hurt us a lot," Cole said. "It hurt us in the Purdue game, it hurt us tonight and we can't come out back-to-back games like that and expect to win.

"I don't know what's it's going to take to get our effort up, but we are definitely going to have to look in the mirror, check ourselves and hold ourselves accountable."