Iowa City, Iowa — MSU's Big Ten title hopes were dealt a crushing blow Tuesday night, as No. 18 Iowa avenged a 30-point loss earlier in the season to handle the No. 16 Spartans, 66-54 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The Spartans (18-7 overall, 6-5 Big Ten) now trail the Hawkeyes (20-6, 9-3) by two and a half games with only five games left.
Senior center Paul Davis led MSU with 17 points, and junior guard Shannon Brown had 12.
Senior guard Maurice Ager, the Big Ten's second-leading scorer, was held scoreless in the first half. He scored MSU's first six points of the second half, but finished with only nine, shooting 3-of-11 from the field.
Forward Greg Brunner and guard Jeff Horner led four Hawkeyes in double figures with 15 points each.
Iowa, which won its sixth game in seven tries and is now 15-0 at home this season, struggled early but seemed to have an answer for every budding Spartans rally.
"I'm disappointed that right now, we can't seem to find the basket with anything," MSU head coach Tom Izzo said. "I'm sure we've lost some confidence — we're going to have to work through it."
MSU jumped out to an 8-2 lead behind layups from Davis, Brown and sophomore guard Drew Neitzel, who finished with 11 points.
After a 3-pointer by Neitzel that put the Spartans ahead 15-8, the Hawkeyes rattled off nine straight points, capped by a fast-break dunk by Brunner, to put Iowa up 17-15.
Another jumper by Neitzel tied the game at 19, but the Spartans were then held scoreless for almost four minutes, and they managed only seven points in the rest of the half. Still, MSU only found itself down by four at halftime, as Iowa failed to find an offensive rhythm. The teams combined for 22 turnovers and 12.5 percent 3-point shooting (2-of-16) in the first half.
MSU took its first lead in 10 minutes with a 10-4 run to start the second half, but it was all Iowa after that.
With the score tied at 37 midway through the second half, center Erek Hansen tipped in back-to-back Iowa misses to put the Hawkeyes up for good.
Horner, who is now Iowa's all-time leader in assists, hit back-to-back 3-pointers moments later to stretch Iowa's lead to eight.
Iowa forward Doug Thomas knocked MSU to the mat with four-and-a-half minutes remaining when he picked off an Ager pass, dribbled it the length of the court and threw down a two-handed dunk.
Brunner then delivered the knockout blow two minutes later when he hit a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to put Iowa up 15 points.
"We're obviously sick of this feeling, and we're the ones who have control of it," Davis said.
Fouls and turnovers once again plagued the Spartans. They picked up seven in the game's first seven minutes, putting Iowa in the bonus with 13:47 left in the half. Ager was the only MSU starter who didn't pick up two fouls before halftime. And the Spartans committed 18 turnovers in the game.
"I don't care who you're playing — they lead directly to baskets," Ager said of MSU's turnover troubles.
The Spartans host Michigan at 4 p.m. Saturday at Breslin Center.
Tom Keller can be reached at kellert1@msu.edu.
