Not perfect, but Iowa will take the win at Drake

DES MOINES - There are plenty of areas to dissect with the Iowa men's basketball team. Coach Fran McCaffery does it all the time.

Last night against Drake, one could point out how a 14-point lead turned into a four-point deficit. Or how the team struggled with patience on offense.

But after a 59-52 win at the Knapp Center, McCaffery preferred to mention how his team rallied after giving up a seemingly insurmountable first-half lead.

“We've got an inexperienced team,” McCaffery said. “We're going to play in spurts. To be on the road and to hold on the way we did, and play the kind of defense we did and make enough shots, I think it was a great thing for our team.

“We had a number of opportunities to really kind of fall apart. We lost a big lead and at the end of the half, I think we're up five. Considering where it was three minutes before, I think was a good thing for us.”

Iowa (6-5) cruised to a 14-0 lead in the first five minutes. But the Hawkeyes struggled the rest of the half, hitting just another three field goals to take a 24-19 halftime lead.

Drake (4-5) picked at Iowa early in the second half and then took a 32-28 lead on a 3-pointer from Ryan Wedel and a dunk from Rayvonte Rice.

“Some teams are going to go on a run, and we just know we had to stay strong,” Iowa freshman Zach McCabe said. “We couldn't do we did in the other games like against Wake (Forest) and Iowa State. So we were pretty proud of what we did tonight, staying calm and playing through things.”

Iowa kept battling. The Hawkeyes led 41-40 with less than 7 minutes left but scored on nine of their next 10 possessions. Junior guard Bryce Cartwright pushed Iowa's lead to three with a layup. Freshman Melsahn Basabe followed with a dunk to extend it to five points.

Perhaps the biggest shot in Iowa's 17-6 run was by freshman guard Devyn Marble. With Iowa up 51-47, Marble was out of position and awkwardly threw up a shot and rolled in to extend the lead to six. The Bulldogs never recovered.

“I knew that was going in ... as soon as I released it,” Marble said. “It was a bad shot, but I knew it was going in.”

Marble finished with five points, two rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes. He moved to point guard the last five minutes when Cartwright left the game with cramps.

“Devyn came in the first half and quick-shot the ball a couple of times, got a little bit sideways so I took him out to settle him down,” McCaffery said. “Not only did he do a great job offensively, defensively he was terrific. His length is going to help us, especially when he's guarding somebody who's smaller. He's 6-6, he's guarding guys who are anywhere from 5-11 to 6-2.”

Iowa junior guard Matt Gatens led the Hawkeyes with 19 points and hit three 3-pointers in his first game with a protective pad over his left thumb.

“My teammates got me open and I just knocked down the shots,” Gatens said. “It feels good.”

Iowa plays Louisiana Tech on Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in its final non-conference game.