No. 18 Michigan State ascends past Iowa in second half

No. 18 Michigan State outscored Iowa by 20 points in the second half to down the Hawkeyes, 80-73, on Saturday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich.

'Too bad we had to have a halftime today,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. 'Everything was clicking for us in the first half, then we were back on our heels.

'Michigan State definitely had the upper hand in the second half. They just came out more physical, more aggressive, more assertive in the second half.”

After Michigan State (13-4, 4-2 Big Ten) shot just 25 percent in the first half and made three free throws, the Spartans shot 60.7 percent in the second half (17-of-28) and hit 22 free throws.

Iowa (13-5, 3-3) hurt itself with 18 turnovers on the game. MSU had 21 points off turnovers.

'We didn't take care of the ball and those resulted in some pretty high percentage shots to get their momentum going,” Bluder said.

The Hawkeyes had built a 36-23 halftime edge with 3-point shooting. Iowa hit 6-of-8 from the arc in the first half, but then just 3-of-10 in the second half.

Michigan State went on an 12-0 run to start the fourth quarter, with eight points from 6-foot forward Aerial Powers. After scoring just two points in the first half, she finished with 23 points to lead all scorers.

'The whole game we were trying to focus on Aerial Powers,” Bluder said. 'She's a tremendous athlete and she does a great job penetrating. She's a hard matchup for us.”

Bluder was disappointed the Hawkeyes didn't go inside more often. Chase Coley and Megan Gustafson were a combined 5-for-7 shooting.

'We didn't get the basketball into our posts,” Bluder said. 'We need to learn how to pass the ball into the post and get some high percentage shots.”

Tania Davis scored a career-high 16 points off the bench to lead Iowa. Whitney Jennings had 15, Ally Disterhoft 13 and Kali Peschel 12.

Iowa returns to action on Wednesday at home against Penn State (6-10, 1-4).

'Mentally, our team really needs to have a great crowd behind us,” Bluder said.