Texas blows past Iowa in NYC

The Iowa men's basketball team built an 11-point lead in the first half, then watched it slip away with a rough second-half performance.

The Hawkeyes missed six consecutive shots, was held scoreless for 6 minutes, 38 seconds and dropped a 71-57 game to Texas in a 2K Classic semifinal Thursday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Iowa shot just 29.6 percent from the floor.

Texas came out of the gates gunning. The Longhorns hit seven of their first eight shots from the field and outscored Iowa 19-7 by the first media timeout of the second half to take a 43-37 lead.

Iowa rallied with four straight free throws from Aaron White and guard Peter Jok knocked down a jumper to tie the game at 43-43 with 13:56 left in the game. Texas then scored 13 consecutive points, and Iowa never could recover.

Texas outscored Iowa 18-0 in points in paint in the half's first 11 minutes. It was a clear reversal from the first half where Iowa's front line of Aaron White, Adam Woodbury and Jarrod Uthoff outscored counterparts Cameron Ridley, Connor Lammart and Jonathan Holmes 25-2.

The Longhorns shot 32 percent in the first half and then scored at a 61 percent rate in the second half. Texas outscored Iowa 34-16 in the paint.

Iowa's guards struggled shooting from the floor, knocking down just three of their first 25 shots and five of 29 overall.

White led the Hawkeyes with 23 points and six rebounds.

FIRST-HALF RECAP

In a battle of top frontcourts, Iowa's trio of Aaron White, Adam Woodbury and Jarrod Uthoff outscored Texas counterparts Cameron Ridley, Connor Lammart and Jonathan Holmes 25-2 to take a 30-24 halftime lead in a 2K Classic semifinal at New York City's Madison Square Garden tonight.

White scored a game-high 11 points and hit 7-of-8 free throws. Uthoff added eight points and Woodbury scored six.

No. 25 Iowa dictated the game's tempo early and scored in transition. Uthoff hit a pair of 3-pointers to put the Hawkeyes up 8-2. A 3-pointer by Josh Oglesby pushed Iowa's lead to 13-2. Then, the Hawkeyes went cold from the field, missing their next six shots as No. 10 Texas caught up, cutting Iowa's lead to 15-11.

The Hawkeyes went on a scoring drought, missing eight straight shots and not scoring a basket during a 7-minute, 31-second span and missed eight straight shots. Texas chopped Iowa's lead to 17-15 but the Hawkeyes soared on a 10-0 run to lead 27-15.

Iowa opened 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. The Hawkeyes finished the half 11-of-13 from the line. Texas was 2-of-2.

Backup guard Javan Felix leads the Longhorns with six points.

The Hawkeyes out-rebounded the Longhorns 24-22, and Iowa pulled down 10 offensive rebounds.

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