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Badgers pull away in second half for win over Hawkeyes

On3 imageby: Tom Kakert5 hours agoHawkeyeReport

For the first twenty minutes it looked like the Iowa Hawkeyes were getting in position to potentially pull of a road upset in Madison. Then the second twenty minutes were played and the Badgers imposed their will on the Hawkeyes on their way to an 84-71 win on Sunday afternoon.

With the loss, Iowa fall to 19-8 on the season and 9-7 in Big Ten Conference play. The Hawkeyes will be back on the court on Wednesday evening when they host Ohio State. That game will take place at 8 pm and air on the Big Ten Network.

The first half was certainly more high scoring than anticipated. Iowa shot 56% before the break and Wisconsin was at 54%.

The Badgers opened the scoring with a dunk by Nolan Winter. However, it was Iowa that did the bulk of the scoring early in the game and it was spread around to several different players. Cooper Koch with a pair of three pointers, Kael Combs, Cam Manyawu, and Alvaro Folgueiras with layups and Iowa was up 14-7 just after the first media timeout.

Wisconsin guard Nick Boyd scored five straight for the Badgers to make it 17-11, Iowa leads. Then it was Austin Rapp who heated up. He drained two three point field goals to trim the Hawkeye edge to 21-17. Boyd cut the lead to one with an old fashion three point play. Winter hammered home a dunk and Boyd scored on a drive and suddenly the Badgers were on a 10-0 run and leading the game 24-21. Meanwhile, Iowa had gone cold, failing to score for 3:36.

However the Hawkeyes got off the deck and scored seven straight points with Tate Sage hitting a three to cap that rally as Iowa lead 28-24. The two teams traded buckets for the next couple of minutes with Stirz completing a three point play on a drive to the bucket to put Iowa up 35-32.

Stirtz hit a three to put the Hawkeyes up 38-34. Winter and Boyd kept the Badgers close and we went to half with Iowa up 41-40.

The second half started off in an ideal fashion for the Hawkeyes. Stirtz, who finished with a team high 23 points, hit a three pointer to open the second half and push the lead to 44-40. That is when the Badgers put their foot on the gas for the first time in the second half. It was an 11-0 run led by Boyd getting to the basket for multiple scores, John Blackwell hitting a three and Rapp hitting another three pointer as well. The result was Wisconsin up 51-44.

Iowa wasn’t ready to go away. A three from Folgueiras cut the lead to 53-49. Shortly after that the Hawkeeyes went on a 6-2 run and cut the lead to 57-55 after a Tate Sage layup. But, Wisconsin quickly pushed the lead back up to 66-61 with Rapp scoring on a dunk. Stritz got it back to three on a drive, however, Wisconsin then put the game out of reach, this time with a 10-0 run just before the final media timeout. Rapp hit two more three pointers and Boyd, who finished with 27 points, scored on another drive to the bucket to make it 78-56. The two teams traded scores in the final minutes with Blackwell scoring six free throws to finish up at 84-71.

For the game, Iowa shot 47% and Wisconsin maintained their level at 54% for the game. After a strong start, Iowa finished up just 7-26 from three and the Badgers were 10-24.

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