Hawkeye Basketball: Coach likes how team regrouped with poise

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Iowa blew an 18-point lead Tuesday night at Wake Forest, then fell behind by 10 points and still had a chance to win the basketball game.

That was a lot for Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery to digest a few minutes after a 76-73 loss. But one area McCaffery chose to address was how the team rallied with poise after a shocking 28-point turnaround in 11 minutes and 44 seconds.

“You have to be able to say to yourself, ‘OK, this thing got away from us a little bit, but we've got plenty of time,'” McCaffery said. “You cannot completely panic. We didn't. We got the stops when we needed them ... We executed everything we needed to execute down the stretch.”

Iowa's first-half play on both ends of the court was solid, even impressive at times. Iowa forced 13 Wake Forest turnovers and converted them into 16 points. Iowa (3-4) shot nearly 48 percent from the floor despite hitting only 3 of 11 3-point attempts.

Early in the second half, everything unraveled for the Hawkeyes, who were outscored 25-6 at the outset. But after trailing by 10 points, Iowa worked itself back into the game with better defense and higher-percentage shots. Twice Iowa took the lead late in the game, the latter on two free throws by Zach McCabe with 2:41 left. Wake Forest freshman J.T. Terrell hit a 25-foot shot with 2.7 seconds left to win the game.

McCaffery said the team's offensive execution was stronger later in the second half than it was in building its first-half lead.

“You have to be able to execute the play calls down the stretch - out of bounds plays, transition offense, half-court sets, half-court motion ...,” McCaffery said. “Whatever you're running, you have to be able to execute that, and we haven't been doing that ... but we executed (Tuesday), and we were able to manage the game and actually took the lead and had two really good looks to win the game.

“From that standpoint, I'm really pleased we made some strides. For us to beat good teams, you have to be able to do that.”

Although it was a difficult loss to digest, Iowa's players said they will learn from the defeat.

“It's a tough ACC opponent on the road in a tough environment,” Iowa junior Matt Gatens said. “We've just got to keep our heads up. It's a win that we definitely could have had and should have had. It's tough to let it slip away, but we have to keep our heads up and move forward.”