No. 4 MSU trails No. 16 Iowa 47-25 at the half in a rematch of the two teams matchup on Dec. 29, 2015 in which Iowa dealt MSU its first loss of the season 83-70.
MSU was led by senior guard Denzel Valentine in his first game starting since his injury last month. Valentine had eight points while Iowa junior guard Peter Jok led Iowa with 19.
MSU's players spoke all week about how they felt they were flat and did not play with even close to the intensity MSU teams should be expected to play with, and they all echoed the same sentiment - they were not going to let it again.
MSU showed more intensity showed early on as MSU's players were flying around the court and diving for every loose ball. Nonetheless, turnovers plagued MSU, as the team committed 12 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game leading to 15 points off of turnovers for Iowa as they built a 30-15 lead with the help of a 10-0 run.
After playing with foul trouble in the first matchup, senior guard Bryn Forbes was looking to bounce back in a big way for MSU, but was sent to the bench with 13:37 to play in the first half after picking up his second foul. Forbes scored just two points in the first half.
Iowa came out ready to play, shooting 51.5 percent from the floor, including 60 percent from behind the three point line on 9-of-15 shooting. Iowa also out rebounded MSU 19-12.
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