Spartans fall to Iowa in upset

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Iowa City, Iowa – MSU men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo has repeated this season that his team might not be ready to compete on the road in the Big Ten.

On Saturday night, he was right.

The No. 6 Spartans (14-2 overall, 2-1 Big Ten) shot a dismal 30 percent and turned the ball over 18 times in a 43-36 upset loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes (8-9, 1-3) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

“We’ve watched everybody talk about how good we are and me talking about how we’re not as good as we need to be,” Izzo said. “It was a total breakdown of every player on our team. That doesn’t happen very often and it won’t happen again.”

The Spartans appeared to be able to endure a 10-minute scoring drought and season-low shooting performance until the last two minutes of the game, when Iowa guard Tony Freeman knocked down a three-pointer at 1:07 to put the nail in the MSU coffin.

As they slowly walked down the court to watch the victory-solidifying free throws, all five MSU players had their heads down.

“It’s just not sinking in,” MSU senior guard Drew Neitzel said. “Coach knows what he’s talking about, talking about toughness and turnovers and we’re not listening. We need to listen to a coach who is a hall of fame coach and a guy who knows how to win championships.

“Until we want to listen to him and follow his lead, we’re not going to be as successful as we want to be.”

MSU’s 11-game winning streaked was snapped and it was the fourth game in a row in which the Hawkeyes defeated the Spartans in Iowa City.

“Sometimes this will be the tape that’ll get burned just because there’s nothing positive we can get out of it,” Izzo said.

With an offense that consisted of nothing more than rotating the ball around the perimeter and settling for jump shots, Iowa coach Todd Lickliter called his second time-out in the first six minutes after the Spartans sprinted to a 9-3 lead. At 11:15 in the first half, the
Hawkeyes were shooting 1-for-14 from the field.

Despite 3-for-13 three-point shooting in the first half, Iowa finally came alive with less than five minutes remaining in the first half, going on a 15-5 run and taking a 2-point lead. At 2:45 in the first half, Iowa’s Cyrus Tate hit two free throws to give the Hawkeyes their first advantage of the game at 19-18.

Going the last eight minutes of the half without a single point, MSU could have considered itself lucky to go into the break trailing only by two points, 20-18. Enduring that drought on 30 percent shooting and with ten turnovers, the Spartans trailed at halftime for only the
third time this season.

Neither team eclipsed the 30-point mark until less than seven minutes remaining and Iowa took a 35-34 lead into a timeout at 2:27.

Sophomore forward Raymar Morgan and Neitzel each had 10 points for MSU while Freeman led the Hawkeyes with a game-high 22 points.

“He did a great job,” Lickliter said. “He was so poised and he made the big shots.”

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