Iowa Hawkeyes battle hard at Wisconsin but fall 83-72

CEDAR RAPIDS — Still looking for that first Big Ten win.

The Iowa Hawkeyes played No. 21 Wisconsin dead even in the first half, but ended up giving up too many points off turnovers and too many points at the free-throw line in an 83-72 loss Tuesday night at Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.

It’s 0-3 in the league now for Iowa, which is 8-6 overall. The next attempt to get off that conference doughnut is Saturday at home against Rutgers (11 a.m. tipoff/Big Ten Network).

“Like I told the guys in the locker room, we like playing Wisconsin, we’d have liked to beat them, but we came up short,” said Iowa’s Tony Perkins postgame on the Hawkeye Radio Network. “We’ve got a big one coming up Saturday, so we just get ready for that one. Get everybody into it and come out with a victory.”

“There’s a great learning opportunity,” said Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery, on the Hawkeye Radio Network. “This shows you what we are capable of doing. But we have to be better.”

Wisconsin (10-3, 2-0) went on an 11-3 run between the 11:42 and 8:22 mark of the second half to build a double-digit lead and pull away from a tight, two-point game. The Badgers have been unusually offensive, so to speak, thus far this season, coming into this game averaging 74 points per game, on pace to average more points than they have in a season since the early 1990s.

Balance was key here, as four players scored in double figures, led by forward Tyler Wahl with 19. St. John’s transfer A.J. Storr added 16, Max Klesmit 15 and Steven Crowl 14.

Storr’s flashy dunk from a pass off the backboard from teammate Chucky Hepburn after a steal gave Wisconsin a 65-55 lead with 8:22 to go. Iowa never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Wisconsin had 24 points off Iowa turnovers and went 24 of 35 from the charity stripe, which were two important statistics in this game, as the Badgers outscored Iowa by 10 and 13, respectively, there.

“You can’t put the other team on the free-throw line 35 times and expect to win,” McCaffery said. “We turned it over too much. They had too many layups, free throws, easy baskets, and we were still right there. So we did some good things on offense. We had a couple of good individual performances.”

Perkins had a game-high 25 points for Iowa, with freshman center Owen Freeman adding a double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Freeman is the first Iowa freshman to have multiple double-doubles since Luka Garza. He played a career-high 36 minutes.

“I thought Freeman was great,” McCaffery said.

The Hawkeyes had a 32-26 lead late in the first half, though Wisconsin was able to gather the last six points to tie it at the break. Leading scorer Ben Krikke dealt with foul trouble the entire game and was limited to 20 minutes, scoring 10 points.

Payton Sandfort also struggled, scoring nine points on just 3-of-11 shooting.

“We have to play better (Saturday) than we did tonight,” McCaffery said. “It’s another opportunity, it’s a really good team in our league. It’s at home, it’s on a Saturday. So we just have to be locked in on that game.”

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