Splat-inee! Hawkeyes fall to Eastern Illinois in afternoon shocker

IOWA CITY — It was a matinee horror show.

The 31.5-point favorite Iowa men’s basketball team was rocked by Eastern Illinois (4-9) Wednesday afternoon in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 92-83.

The Panthers of the Ohio Valley Conference entered the game 350th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, with one win in 10 games against Division I opposition.

Iowa jetted to a 20-6 lead, then sat on the tarmac the rest of the way. The more-aggressive Panthers of the Ohio Valley Conference put on a dunk-fest and showed no intimidation. Point guard Yaakema Rose ran the show with six assists and four steals.

Poor shooting, leaky defense and lackluster rebounding cost the Hawkeyes dearly against a smaller opponent that grew in confidence as the game grew longer. Eastern Illinois worked for high-percentage shots. Iowa, not so much.

The Panthers had nine second-half dunks, and 12 in the game.

Iowa held a 45-37 halftime lead despite getting out-rebounded by five.

“I think going into halftime down eight was a real blessing for us,” said EIU Coach Marty Simmons. “I just think our guys really felt like they had an opportunity if they played well in the second half.”

The Panthers had a 7-0 run to pull within a point four minutes into the second half, went ahead for the first time 90 seconds later, and kept lobbing, jamming and defending.

EIU’s Kinyon Hodges, a 6-foot-2 guard, had 21 points and six dunks.

Iowa, meanwhile, made just 2 of 17 second-half 3-pointers and 7 of 33 in the game. Patrick McCaffery and Ahron Ulis both were 0-of-7 from deep. The team shot 38.9 percent from the floor.

“We had some good looks,” Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said. “I’m not complaining about the threes that Patrick or Payton (Sandfort, who was 3-of-10 from 3-point) or Ulis took. I thought they were pretty good shots.”

The Panthers took 12 less shots than Iowa, but made eight more and shot 60 percent. They had 52 points in the paint, and 26 fast-break points to Iowa’s 7.

“We started going a little too much one-on-one,” Fran McCaffery said. “We had two assists in the second half, one assist until like the two-minute mark. We just tried to do it all on our own a little bit.”

Filip Rebraca of Iowa had a game-high 24 points. Patrick McCaffery had a career-high 13 rebounds.

It didn’t help Iowa’s cause that senior guard Connor McCaffery joined junior forward Kris Murray on the inactive list. McCaffery was held out of this game with a wrist sprain.

The game was moved up from a scheduled evening starting time because of a pessimistic weather outlook. It was played before 5,000 people tops, scattered throughout the gym.

It wasn’t a bad crowd, considering the short-notice time-change and forecast. The game wasn’t televised, which was just as well for the Hawkeyes given how it turned out.

After parting ways briefly for Christmas, the Hawkeyes will resume play Dec. 29 at Nebraska, the first of 19 straight Big Ten regular-season contests.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com