Your Iowa Hawkeyes shot under 40 percent from the floor and 18 percent from three en route to a 74-62 rout at the hands of the HATED Duke Blue Devils in Madison Square Garden.
Iowa found itself outmatched in the first half, where the Hawkeyes were marred by awful shooting (it ended the half at just a 37% clip while going 2-9 from deep) and zero second chance points. Despite Duke’s height advantage, the Blue Devils grabbed just two more boards early on.
Kris Murray struggled mightily to get anything going. It took just under 10 minutes of game time for him to hit a basket, though he notched back-to-backs thereafter. Still, he led Iowa early on with 6 boards and another 3 assists.
His struggles continued throughout 40 minutes as Duke happily threw bodies at him and dared Iowa to generate anything on offense without him. He ended with just 8 points and 7 boards on 3-9 shooting.
The first frame ended in frustrating fashion as Filip Rebraca whiffed on what felt like three consecutive bunnies. He snuck one in right at the buzzer to make it 37-31 half, which felt like a moral victory given the way Iowa played the first 20 minutes.
The second half lacked victories of any sort for Iowa, as Murray didn’t come to the rescue, Payton Sandfort continued his shooting slump, and Duke’s immense size (and shooting) advantage came to roost.
The Hawkeyes made just one (1) three the entire second half, while Duke knocked down 7 of ‘em. Kyle Filipowski and Ryan Young hauled in 21 boards combined and made Iowa’s guards see ghosts on the chance they had a sliver of daylight down the lane.
Duke kept Iowa at an arms length the entire second half, utilizing its size advantage and possession of Jeremy Roach (22 points on 8-18 shooting) to help salt this one away.
Notes
- Man, it’s great to see Matt Gatens back on the sideline.
- I’m too tired to look it up, but this feels like the worst three-pointing team of Fran’s tenure.
Going back to the Florida tournament, Iowa is just 18-for-74 from 3 (24.3%) over 7+ halves of basketball.
— Chad Leistikow (@ChadLeistikow) December 7, 2022
- Dasonte Bowen looked pretty good, despite having some real freshman moments.
- Playing Iowa State and Wisconsin in the next five days feels less than ideal.
- This game started way too late.
