Turnovers sink Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY - After watching Iowa play fourth-ranked Purdue tough for much of last Tuesday's Big Ten opener, the Iowa faithful who showed up for Saturday's game against Minnesota were at least hoping for the same.

A rash of turnovers forced by the Gophers' aggressive press killed any notion of a "moral" victory. Minnesota coasted to an 86-74 decision at half-empty Carver-Hawkeye Arena that was not nearly as close as the final score. More importantly, the loss put the Hawkeyes (5-9) into an early 0-2 hole in conference play.

For the first eight minutes of the game, Minnesota guard Blake Hoffarber outscored Iowa 11-10 as the Hawkeyes continually turned the ball over. At the break, the Gophers led 49-32 thanks in large part to 18 Hawkeye turnovers, 14 of which came off steals. Despite repeated timeouts by Iowa coach Todd Lickliter, Iowa never could figure out Minnesota's pressure. The only reason the final score wasn't worse was that Minnesota finally called off the dogs and Iowa nailed a couple late 3-pointers. 

The Gophers (11-3, 2-0 Big Ten) jumped out to a 19-4 lead five minutes into the game and never looked back. Their biggest lead of the first half was 25 points with 4:58 left. And, the final score could have been worse if Minnesota was not sloppy itself and continued putting up questionable shots.

Hoffarber led all scorers with 24 points. Matt Gatens was Iowa's leading scorer with 14 while Eric May added 13.

Iowa next plays at Illinois on Tuesday night.