IOWA CITY – The basket seemed to shrink for the Iowa Hawkeyes Tuesday night in their game against Ohio State, as they shot themselves out of the game and lost to the Buckeyes 76-69 in front of a sold-out Carver-Hawkeye arena.
Iowa’s 3-point shooting doomed their effort. They could connect on only 3-20 shot from beyond the arc.
Iowa coach Fran McCaffery didn’t take issue with the shot selection of his players.
“We had good shooters shooting open threes. I wasn’t upset with any of them, no,” McCaffery said. “But we got good looks, we got the ball inside, we got 15 offensive rebounds, so I think our effort was good there. Our execution on our set plays was good. Our execution in motion was not.”
Iowa out-rebounded OSU 38-25, but shot only 63% from the foul line to OSU’s 79%.
Mike Gesell registered a season-high 16 points to lead the Hawkeyes. Buckeye guard Aaron Craft lead OSU with a season-high 17 points along with 6 assists and 6 steals.
Roy Devyn Marble surpassed the 1,500 career point mark, scoring 10 points but turning the ball over 4 times.
Iowa hosts Michigan on Feb. 8. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Coach McCaffery reflected on the loss and the upcoming challenge against Michigan.
“You know, we played hard tonight. We didn’t play well. We never really got in sync. We got behind. We weren’t in sync defensively. We made more mistakes than we normally make. We just have to learn from it and get ready for Saturday. Obviously the No. 1 team in our league right now.”
Gabe says, Not so fast! #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/vqT8r47D8U
— The Iowa Hawkeyes (@TheIowaHawkeyes) February 5, 2014
That's two straight HUGE #B1G road wins for @OhioStateHoops. More at http://t.co/BLIUNFkVHc: http://t.co/J8KnTZhttx pic.twitter.com/bkZnH2mKHO
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 5, 2014
