Iowa claims loss was no moral victory

EAST LANSING, Mich. - If Iowa's players and coaches could ever accept a moral victory, last night's 70-63 loss at Michigan State might count as one.

But as pleased as they were with chopping a 19-point deficit to three points late, the Hawkeyes were still bitter about the outcome.

“It's nice for a young team like this to see that we can be right there,” Iowa sophomore Matt Gatens said. “We can hang with these teams, even on the road in a great environment here at Breslin. But at the same time we can't settle for losing by five, eight points. We can't be satisfied. It's still not fun to lose, even if it's a closer game.”

Iowa (7-12, 1-5 Big Ten) has lost a school-record 15 consecutive road games and has lost its last 14 games at Michigan State. But neither the boisterous, sold-out Breslin Center nor the No. 6-ranked Spartans intimidated the players. Iowa played possession-by-possession and rallied with crisp offensive play.

“We never said, ‘Let's just play hard and see what happens,'” Iowa Coach Todd Lickliter said. “We kept saying it's the possession at hand.”

The loss gave some players confidence that the Hawkeyes could compete in the Big Ten.

“It just shows we need to be more consistent throughout the whole game,” said Iowa sophomore Aaron Fuller, who scored 13 points and missed a third-straight double-double by one rebound. “We could really stick with anyone. This is a top 10 team in the nation right here. They're a really good team, and we were hanging with them in the end. So there's no moral victories, but I'm proud of the guys and how we played.”