Hawkeye men’s basketball team wins big again, 82-71 at Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Iowa has come into March like a lion.

The Hawkeyes were already roaring when the calendar flipped into college basketball’s favorite month with four straight double-digit wins. Thursday at Crisler Center, they scored first against Michigan and never trailed in their 82-71 triumph.

Iowa had a 19-point second-half lead trimmed to seven, but withstood the late challenge to pull away.

Keegan Murray scored 23 points on just nine field goal tries for the Hawkeyes. His brother, Kris Murray, scored 19. So did Jordan Bohannon.

The win was No. 24 Iowa’s fifth straight and pushed it to 12-7 in the Big Ten and 22-8 overall. Michigan dropped to 10-9, 16-14. It avenged the Hawkeyes’ most-recent defeat, 84-79 to the Wolverines in Iowa City on Feb. 17.

The Hawkeyes scored the game’s first five points, and were ahead 17-6 before the game was seven minutes old. The lead grew. It was as large as 18 points on two occasions in the first half, which ended with Iowa in front, 47-30.

Iowa shot 60 percent from the field in the half to Michigan’s 37.5. The Hawkeyes made their first four 3-pointers and hit 7 of 10 in the half.

At one point, Keegan and Kris Murray had outscored Michigan’s team, 23-21. Keegan Murray had eight points before the first TV timeout.

The Hawkeyes’ lead was never less than 13 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Bohannon sank a pair of 3-pointers within 14 seconds to turn a 49-36 score into 55-36. He made 5 of his first 6 3s.

Michigan was 9-of-13 from the field in the second half with 10:18 left, but had trimmed just one point off the Iowa advantage. The Wolverines made 15 of their first 20 second-half shots, in fact.

Iowa got its hands on the ball defensively repeatedly in the last two minutes to stave off the Wolverines after Michigan drew within 76-69 with 2:09 left.

Iowa forward Patrick McCaffery returned to action after missing the Hawkeyes’ home win over Northwestern Monday with a hip issue. He played 18 minutes but watched most of the second half from the sideline.

Michigan forward Moussa Diabate had 28 points at Iowa last month, but was 2-of-9 from the field for four points Thursday.

Iowa wraps up regular-season play at No. 20 Illinois Sunday at 6:37 p.m.