Michigan levels Hawkeye men with big second-half run, wins 90-80

IOWA CITY — A third one-sided loss in seven days has dropped the Iowa men’s basketball team to 5-5 overall and 0-2 in the Big Ten.

The Hawkeyes trailed by as much as 20 points before falling 90-80 to Michigan Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. That was after they led by two points early in the second half.

Iowa lost 87-68 at Purdue last Monday and 90-65 at Iowa State last Thursday. It’s the first time the Hawkeyes have lost three straight games by double-digits since the 2018-19 season.

The Wolverines (5-5, 1-1) went on a 27-5 run in a second-half stretch of about six minutes for a 62-42 lead with 12:25 left. The end came of that run came with Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery getting the second of his two technical fouls, bringing an automatic ejection.

The game was gone by then, as McCaffery and Iowa’s season-high crowd of 10,000 (announced) knew.

Ben Krikke had a game-high 24 points for Iowa. Tony Perkins added 19 points and four steals. Six Michigan players scored at least 10 points. Tarris Reed had 19, and had three of his team’s six blocked shots.

Iowa shot 43.8 percent from the field, its best shooting game of the last three. It was far from good enough.

The first-half was the opposite of the second. It featured seven lead-changes and nine ties, ending with the Wolverines ahead 35-33.

Michigan’s top two scorers this season, guard Dug McDaniel and forward Olivier Nkamhoua, were scoreless in the first half. They combined for 23 second-half points.

“The key to me was transition defense, transition defense, transition defense,” acting Wolverines head coach Phil Martelli said.

“We committed to that. We feared it. We knew that they’d lace up after Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, getting ready to get 100-plus and test us to see if we could do the same. So our transition defense and shot-challenging — even at the rim — are what set this apart.”

Iowa’s transition defense and half-court defense were nothing too special. But had the Hawkeyes not missed 14 of their first 15 three-point tries, the game would have at least been a lot more interesting.

“We had good shooters with open shots and we didn’t put them away,” McCaffery said. “That puts all the pressure on your defense

“We’ll get there. We have a good group. I like the depth. I think we have enough shooting to win some games, but we haven’t shot it well.”

Iowa is 29.7 percent from deep over the last three games. It made four 3-pointers in the final two minutes to pull within 10 points of Michigan, but was never closer than that in the final 16 minutes.

“You just have to stay positive,” said McCaffery. “I’m not in there yelling at anybody.

“At times we played a little tentative today. I don’t want that. I want them to trust your talent and go make plays, and I think they’ll do better at that.”

As a response to Michigan’s lineup with 6-foot-10 Reed and 6-=9 Nkamhoua, McCaffery gave 6-10 freshman Owen Freeman his first start. He got in early foul trouble and was scoreless until the second half.

Michigan out-rebounded the Hawkeyes, 41-32.

Iowa’s next game is Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Des Moines against Florida A&M (2-5). It’s the opener of a men’s/women’s doubleheader in which the Hawkeye women will play Cleveland State.