Iowa postgame

The MSU team that won four straight games didn’t make it to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes.

The suffocating defense was gone. The aggressive offense was nowhere to be found. The will to win the game didn’t seem to be present.

Iowa ran all over the Spartans in MSU’s 77-66 loss. It was ugly. Critical stops nearly were nonexistent. The Hawkeyes made MSU’s defense look JV at points. The same things kept working again and again and again.

Although the offense wasn’t being aggressive, the Spartans did do well hitting jumpers, an area of inconsistency for this squad. The team hit nine 3-pointers and multiple mid-range jumpers, as well. That needs to continue, but the team also needs to take it to the rim.

Now for tonight’s rundown.

TURNING POINT Freshman guard Jasmine Thomas gave MSU a 31-30 lead to open the second half. From there, Iowa went on a game-changing 15-2 run that the Spartans could never recover from.

MSU’s only basket during the run, a layup by Kalisha Keane, had controversy follow it. MSU appeared to force a five-second violation on the ensuing inbound play. The official on the baseline called a violation but was overruled by another official, who said Iowa called timeout. At that point, MSU was down 40-33 and it appeared it was going to start a momentum swing. Instead, the Hawkeyes kept rolling.

PLAYER OF THE GAME Iowa guard Kachine Alexander
With MSU trying to get back in the game late, Alexander hit her free throws (12-of-14). She finished with 23 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. She had a critical bucket with 1:41 left that fouled junior guard Brittney Thomas out of the game. It put Iowa up 69-60.

AREA OF IMPROVEMENT Protecting the rim
In the last two weeks, both Northwestern and Iowa have been able to get to the rim on the Spartans almost at will. After being hurt by it early against Northwestern, MSU adjusted. That was not the case against Iowa. Time and time again Iowa set up on the perimeter and drove right past a defender and to the rim. When someone was there to help, they kicked it out to the perimeter.

Iowa simply got inside way too easy and MSU’s inability to stop them was the difference in the game.