Iowa Hawkeyes can’t finish second-half uphill climb in 83-73 loss to Purdue Boilermakers

IOWA CITY — This business of trying to win via a second-half comeback has gotten old for the Iowa men’s basketball team.

It also didn’t work Thursday night in the Hawkeyes’ 83-73 loss to No. 6 Purdue. The Boilermakers took the lead 19 seconds into the game and kept it. Iowa trailed 48-33 at halftime and was down 53-35 early in the second half before battling back to within 57-53 with 12:22 to go.

The crowd of 12,723 spent a lot of time on its feet in that stretch, trying to vocally help the Hawkeyes over the hump. But that was as close as they got.

It wasn’t like Iowa’s home games against Maryland and Indiana, when it was behind at the half but rallied for victories. Purdue didn’t crack, thus the Hawkeyes did and are 4-5 in the Big Ten, 14-6 overall.

“I just think it was the energy,” Iowa forward Keegan Murray said. “The energy in the first half, for whatever reason, wasn’t there. In the second half, we picked it up.

“To beat a good team like that, you have to have energy for a full 40 minutes and then compete the whole 40 minutes. And we didn’t do that in the first half.

“There’s been a lot of times where we’ve gotten down in the first half this year and fought our way back. That’s not what great teams do. They compete and fight the whole 40 minutes.”

It didn’t help Iowa’s first-half cause that Murray got his second foul with 11:19 left and Hawkeyes Coach Fran McCaffery benched him until the second half began as he typically does when a player gets two first-half fouls.

Thus, the Big Ten’s leading scorer had two points at halftime. He finished with 14, second on his team only to brother Kris Murray’s 23.

“As a competitor, you want to stay in the game,” Keegan Murray said. “I feel like I can stay without fouling. But he’s a head coach for a reason and I respect anything that he does.”

Kris Murray echoed Keegan’s words about the lack of first-half energy, saying “They’re getting open 3s, layups. We can’t let that happen.”

Kris scored 10 straight Iowa points during his team’s 16-4 second-half run to make a game of it. But the Boilermakers responded. Jaden Ivey made a pair of 3-pointers within 28 seconds to up his team’s lead to 63-55. Iowa got no closer than five points after that.

Purdue shot 64.3 percent from the field in the first half, 61.2 percent in the game. It made 13 of 22 3-pointers compared to Iowa’s 8-of-27. The Hawkeyes had 15 more shots than Purdue, but made six fewer.

The Boilermakers (17-3, 6-3 Big Ten) played like a team that’s ranked No. 6. Iowa played like a team that’s not in the Big Ten title hunt.

“I didn't think we competed in the first half the way you have to compete to beat a team of this caliber,” McCaffery said. “That doesn't mean we didn't play hard. You have to play hard, you have to be connected, pay attention to the game plan. We were late on stuff, and then we tried to do it all on our own offensively.

“In the second half our defense was way better, our press, our half-court defense, and our offense.”

But it was a hole too deep, as it was when Iowa cut a 19-point deficit to two at Purdue on Dec. 3 before falling 77-70.

“We were just locked in,” said Ivey.

“If you are late, they're going to score,” McCaffery said. “They're too good. They have too many weapons. It's not like you can zero in on one or two guys; it's everybody. Everybody they have is a veteran guy who can score.”

The Boilermakers were led by junior guard Isaiah Thompson’s 18 points. He entered averaging 3.4 points in conference play, but he made four 3-pointers and took good shots.

Ivey, the sophomore guard All-America candidate, came back from a one-game absence due to a hip flexor injury and put up 15 points in 21 minutes.

“I felt good,” Ivey said.

Senior center Trevion Williams had 12 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. The 6-foot-10, 245-pound Williams had five assists, two more than any Hawkeye.

Iowa’s next game is next Monday at Penn State (6 p.m. CT).

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