Iowa’s high-powered offense was rendered to its lowest output of the season en route an early round 67-63 loss to 12th-seeded Richmond.
It was a perfect storm of misery in an Iowa first half that featured:
- 1/13 from three
- 10/33 from the floor
- 7 turnovers
- 1 really dumb foul that gave Richmond the lead at the break
The good news is Richmond didn’t play much better, with the Spiders getting out-rebounded 26-18 early on, leaving the door open during a game they could’ve taken control of. Tyler Burton played Keegan Murray about as good as one could hope, and Richmond’s nimble point guards made things an issue for Jordan Bohannon, who went 0-3 in the first 20 minutes as the Spiders took a 29-28 lead at the break.
The second half was largely more of the same.
Shots weren’t falling for Iowa, and the Hawkeyes refused to take it to the glass when that happened. And every rare occasion someone in a gold jersey crossed the charity stripe, a schizophrenic shot ensued.
All the remaining warts from the first 20 minutes more or less lingered as the Hawkeyes ended the game:
- 24/67 from the floor
- 6/30 from deep
- Just 3 turnovers
- One very sad blogger
Patrick McCaffery was the lone bright spot down the stretch as back-to-back threes sparked an 11-0 run early in the second. Richmond then took advantage of an Iowa drought that lasted nearly 5 minutes and knocked down 11 points of its own.
It’s a big of a shock after watching this Iowa team steamroll through the Big Ten Tournament less than a week ago. All-American Keegan Murray was muzzled despite scoring a team-high 21 points and 9 boards. He never got going, and was 0-3 from deep. Even when it seemed like the natural move to get him the ball, Iowa either zagged or settled for a low percentage shot.
At least Chris Mooney wore a suit.