Iowa fails to stop Christopherson in Cy-Hawk loss

IOWA CITY - Iowa's men's basketball team won't soon forget Iowa State guard Scott Christopherson.

The Cyclone junior buried the Hawkeyes for 30 points in a 75-72 win last night at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. But the Hawkeyes (5-5) also won't forget about tough stretches of offensive futility, the wasted possessions and porous free-throw shooting.

For Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery, it all starts with defense.

“We have to be able to go into a game and at least limit the other team's top two players,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “Right now we're not doing that. Maybe we've got to come up with better schemes, maybe we have to change who's guarding those guys. You can't let a guy like Christopherson come in here and get 30, OK? I'll take responsibility for that.

“So at the same time it's those stretches where we try to get it all back at once. That we can talk about. That we can get straightened out. It's a matter of having a little bit of patience.”

In front of a near-sellout crowd, Iowa fell behind early, then sprinted ahead, then led by nine points at halftime. But the Cyclones made their mark in the second half in an all-too-familiar stretch.

Iowa State (8-2) started the second half strong with an 8-0 run and then buried the Hawkeyes with offensive precision. The Cyclones outscored Iowa 30-12 to take a 61-52 lead. Christopherson scored 16 points during that stretch, and Iowa struggled to identify him. Concurrently, Iowa rushed through its offensive sets and limped through with 13 second-half turnovers.

“I think for us, even though we lost, I think there were a lot of good things in this game for our team,” McCaffery said. “Obviously some things that to me that are disappointing, not the least of which is we seem to continue to have the same struggle over and over. I think that is what is disconcerting to me. When another team goes on a run, we tend to quick shoot the ball, and we did not do a good enough job on Christopherson.

“It's my fault. I'm not blaming anybody else.”

Iowa did fight throughout the game. The Hawkeyes cut Iowa State's lead to 61-58 on consecutive scoring possessions. But the Cyclones again stretched their lead to 10 points on a Christopherson 3-pointers and a bucket from Diante Garrett.

“We didn't get back, that was the thing that we lacked in our transition defense,” said Iowa freshman Melsahn Basabe, who had 12 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocked shots. “They'd have a run, we came back, they made another run and looked like we was down but we still fought back from that. It was still a one-possession game at the end of the game with all of our mistakes and a few letdowns."

Iowa trimmed the Cyclones' lead to 70-68, which set up the game's most controversial play. with less than a minute remaining, Iowa State's Jake Anderson dribbled the ball in the lane toward Iowa's Zach McCabe when the ball went out of bounds. The ball went back to Iowa State, and McCaffery - who already was hit for one technical - tossed his clipboard.

“I'm not sure I remember what his explanation was, to be honest with you,” McCaffery said. “I mean, he said something. I wasn't hearing him at that particular time.”

The Cyclones capitalized with a Christopherson 3-pointer that pushed their lead to five points and ultimately sealed the game.

It was a great environment, great support by our fans,” Basabe said. “It was a great game to play in. Unfortunately we didn't get the win.“