Iowa again unable to finish comeback in AdvoCare Invite

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — On Thursday night, Iowa dug itself a substantial hole when it found itself down by 14 points in the second half against Dayton. A rally and a lead was short-lived, though, when the Flyers managed to escape with a 82-77 victory.

On Friday, it was more of the same, except this time around the Hawkeyes trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half before mounting a huge turnaround in the second half. Like Thursday, it was all for naught as Iowa fell to Notre Dame in a 68-62 loss.

'It was very similar to last night's game,' said Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery, who was denied once again from securing his 100th victory with the Hawkeyes. 'Made a bunch of shots early, then the offense wasn't clicking, the defense was not what it needed to be against a team of this caliber.'

Jarrod Uhtoff scored a game-high 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting and is now shooting at a 50 percent clip from the field (32-of-64). Mike Gesell added 14 points and nine assists while Adam Woodbury had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

While Uthoff and Woodbury were a combined 15-for-25 from the field, the rest of the team went 10-of-41. The Hawkeyes were 6-of-24 from beyond the arc.

'I think we really were settling for threes, because they came so easy early,' McCaffery said. 'We seemed to be open. But we've got to be able to mix it a little better. Drives. Post feeds. Threes. We really didn't do that. We just kind of kept jacking. We hit a couple, that helped us get back in it, and then we turned around and missed a few more. We've got to diversify the offense a little bit, I think.'

Iowa (3-2) took an early 12-5 lead to open the game before Notre Dame (4-1) climbed back to stake a 17-15 advantage with a little over 10 minutes to play in the first half. The Irish stretched it to 39-22 behind an 11-0 run late in the first half due in part to three of their six 3-pointers.

It seemed as if the Hawkeyes would be run out of HP Field House at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex when the Irish were able to maintain a large lead early in the second half, but Woodbury's basket inside on a putback after a missed layup by Anthony Clemmons with 14:32 left in regulation began a 16-0 run that helped Iowa reclaim a 47-46 lead. Woodbury scored six points during the rally including a jumper that capped the run.

'We – me and Jarrod (Uthoff) and Sapp (Anthony Clemmons) – made some tough shots,' said Peter Jok, who had a difficult night going 3-of-15 from the field while scoring eight points. 'Woody (Adam Woodbury) was the only one that made some easy shots. We thought we were on a roll, but we got trigger happy, we started shooting a lot of threes. We should have been attacking, but we're going to get better and just learn from this.'

The lead was fleeting because Notre Dame guard Demetrius Jackson sank a jumper 24 seconds after Woodbury's basket that gave the Irish a lead they did not relinquish. A 3-pointer by Irish guard Steve Vasturia (11 points) following two made free throws by Uthoff gave Notre Dame a 57-53 lead with 3:28 left and the Hawkeyes did not get within five the rest of the way.

'That's what's disappointing, because I thought we fought hard enough to win the game,' McCaffery said. 'We did enough good stuff to be in a position to win the game. We couldn't close it out.'

The Irish had five players score in double figures led by V.J. Beachem with 16 points and Demetrius Jackson with 12 points. Bonzie Colson and Matt Ryan each added 11 points as the Irish shot 46 percent (25-55) from the field, including 8-for-25 on 3-pointers.

Iowa will face Wichita State in a morning match-up on Sunday when the two teams tip off at 9 a.m. on ESPN3. Both teams will be looking for their first win of the tournament in the battle for seventh place.