Iowa 83, Indiana 74: my favorite Murray

Kris Murray scored a career-high 29 points and pulled down 11 more boards in a chaotic win over Indiana, 83-74.

The first half had no shortage of highfalutin’ fireworks as the Hoosiers netted 46 in the first frame alone. Miller Kopp hit a 3 in the opening seconds of the game, and that’s when I told myself it was going to be one of those kinds of nights.

Kopp didn’t do much more throughout, but a lack of discipline around the Iowa team set the stage early.

It’s important to mention the dominance of Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson (combined for 21 and 8) in the first 20 minutes. Kris Murray was Iowa’s life preserver for the Hawkeyes with a career-high 17 points in just the first half.

But Fran McCaffery seemed to cast a dark shadow early on.

First, Filip Rebraca was whistled for two quick fouls. He went to jail for awhile, forcing Iowa to play a miserably out of shape Josh Ogundele for 5 minutes. Rebraca eventually returned with 4 minutes to go in the half, which made it even more maddening that Keegan Murray sat on the bench for the final 10 minutes of the frame after securing his second foul.

And finally, a technical foul on Fran handed Indiana 3 points that added to an 11-0 Hoosier run.

Thankfully, Kris Murray came to play, as he had 4 points between two from Jordan Bohannon after the T. Pat McCaffery hit 3 of four foul attempts to close the half while on a 9-3 Iowa run. It felt like a minor miracle to be down just 46-41.

Some weird things happened at the break between the teams, but Iowa certainly did look a bit fired up as the second half commenced.

Keegan Murray scored four quick points—then committed his third foul. He’d eventually return with 12 minutes to go after a Bohannon lay-up made it 56-55 Indiana.

Then Keegan committed his fourth foul and went to the bench. Six seconds later, Rebraca got dinged for his fourth, but remained in the game. This happened with just under 11 minutes left and put Indiana in the bonus. The Hoosiers had been whistled for just three fouls at this point.

Thankfully, they couldn’t keep the ball when they had it. A turnover set up six straight points for Tony Perkins to give Iowa its first lead since midway through the first half.

Iowa held onto the margin for dear life. Keegan returned with 7 minutes left and immediately scored. Four made free throws from Ahron Ulis and Bohannon made it 72-66 good guys and a great hustle play from Connor under the rim turned into a foul and two more Hawkeye points.

Kris Murray then picked Race Thompson’s pocket and slammed it back home. It was IU’s 22nd turnover of the game, and they all cost ‘em.

Iowa got a goaltend back on an iffy Rebraca chance, Kris Murray scored three more points, Fran damn near put his hand through a folding chair, and fouls closed this one out in another unhinged Hawkeye win.

The rest

• Might be worth mentioning the crew missed a blisteringly obvious goaltend in the first half. Seems like they missed another on JT in the second as well. The one handed to Rebraca towards the end of the game seemed like a makeup.
• Indiana turned it over 23 times, Iowa just 12.
• Iowa was also damn near spotless at the line, going 21-25 there. Indiana just 13-21.
• Keegan Murray still had himself a fine game despite playing just 22 minutes—12 & 9.
• Kris and Keegan need to play together more.
• Iowa actually out-rebounded Indiana, 35-31.